


The tournament

by Zoya113



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Alice rlly said be quiet I’m playing animal crossing, F/F, F/M, Femme rights, Melissa read warrior cats as a kid don’t @ me, Military slang, This is like a last hurrah but that’s too many tags, a clown and a fool who did it again, i'm only updating this bc im a clown, on GOD we lov a bit of sexual tension, this is so dumb lmao, vine refeences, when letmepukeinyourmouthem said Carol and Schaeffer were sisters, yeah I stole that thank u
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:28:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 29,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23227879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: The joke is on Ted for managing to upset every single one of his friends on the same weekend as the open paintball tournament, pointed out courtesy of Melissa. It’s a great place for the citizens of Hatchetfield to vent their rage at one another
Relationships: Carol & Colonel Schaeffer, Charlotte/ Sam, Deb/ Alice, Emma Perkins & Henry Hidgens, Emma Perkins/ Paul Matthews, Ethan & Alice, Ethan & Professor Hidgens, General McNamara & Colonel Schaeffer, Lex/ Ethan, Melissa & Colonel Schaeffer (The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals), Melissa/ Doug, Mr Davidson/ Carol, Nora & Zoey, Ted/ Charlotte, Xander Lee/John McNamara
Comments: 5
Kudos: 81





	1. The Tournament

**Author's Note:**

> A note for those who didn’t get through my cluster of tags I’m stealing @letmepukeinyourmouthem’s headcanon that Carol & Schaeffer are sisters
> 
> And @ the TDA:haha group if any of this dialogue sounds familiar ur right

Ted hunched his shoulders as he came in through the office door. This was dumb. What even was a family lunch? In a business office? What was that gonna do? Nothing but fill the office up with squealing children. Nothing but make people ask Ted why he had no family to bring. Bullshit. 

“Morning Ted,” Melissa waved to him as he entered in the morning. “How’re you?” She was spinning in her office chair. Why was she in such a good mood? Not like she had family to bring either. 

“What’s the grin for? Did you bring your cat? Or manage to wrangle one of your parents into coming?” 

She bared her teeth in a show of disgust. “Nope. Even if they had a free second as if I’d want them here. They’d just tell me to clean my desk and then go get a better job. What about you? You find anyone?” 

They had sort of been discussing it for the week leading up to it. She was the only one he didn’t mind sinking down to because she wasn’t bright enough to pick up on the existence of a social ladder, honestly. He had been a little worried that showing up alone would bring about the questions, make him look a little lonely -especially if Charlotte bought Sam- he had been dreading it all week

“No. I’m telling you, this whole family thing isn’t even important. It was one big ploy for Mr Davidson to bring his wife in without us telling him he’s slacking off again.” 

As if on instinct Melissa averted her eyes from the blinds to Mr Davidson’s office, humming to distract herself. “Mayhaps.” 

“And he’ll give a ten minute introductory speech that’ll drain half our lunch break just to introduce her to everyone like he even gave us the chance to forget her.”

“Cannot wait for the day I find someone who loves me that much,” she cooed, her thoughts drifting elsewhere. “A wife. We will move to the mountains and spend all our time with one another, make our own bread, our own honey, knit sweaters, garden-“ 

“Oh my god, not again.” He had heard the first half of this ramble and it went on for ages. He did not care how badly Melissa wanted to move to the forest to live in a cottage and read books by the fireplace. That was not the point of this conversation. He’d see if she’d still be smiling come lunch break when family started to arrive. 

Unfortunately she was, but that wasn’t really a surprise. He had never seen her frown, actually, but god that was one hell of a smile. And that meant he would have to head down to the IT room to take out some warranted frustration on his peers as per usual. 

“Oh. There’s a party in here,” he regretted it the second he opened the door. It was full, there were people sitting on the floor. 

Emma was in Paul’s lap, Alice was sitting on the opposite side of Bill’s desk, Sam was loitering, looking like as asshole, everything seemed to track. 

Everyone turned to look at him as he opened the door. 

“What’s up, asshole?” Emma looked up from her lunch.

“Wow. That’s unwarranted,” he held up his hands in defence. “Hey Paul, are you even allowed to bring her? She’s not family if you aren’t married,” he pointed out. 

“Hey babe, you wanna get married?” Emma titled her head back to kiss Paul’s chin. 

His face lit up red, his jaw dropping. “Yes, what, now?” 

“Well there you have it, Ted.” She tapped a hand to Paul’s blushing cheek to bring him back to the present. 

“That doesn’t sign the papers, Em.” 

“Well if I’m not here for family shit I’m here for a coffee run,” she shrugged, putting her drink to her lips. 

Paul wrapped his hands around Emma’s waist anxiously. “What’s wrong with Emma being here?” 

Ted put his hands on his hips. “Parents wouldn’t come?” Was he projecting? Don’t make him laugh. Of course not, duh, no way.

“Paul isn’t twelve years old, who cares if his parents couldn’t make it? Where are your parents then, Ted?” Emma jumped in before Paul could have a second to face those words. 

But before he could answer Melissa swung the door almost off its hinges with a laugh that could be heard all the way down the hall. “Guys! Look!” Her hand was attached to Schaeffer’s, but following in behind her was Carol Davidson, with their boss in tow. 

“God, isn’t this a fire hazard?” Sam raised an arm to make room for the extra people. 

“Wow. Okay. I thought the rules were clear, family only,” Ted restated as Melissa pushed him aside to show off who had arrived. “Really, Colonel? Nowhere better to be?”

“She’s here with me,” Carol answered. “Because my dove let me bring her along,” she paused to plant a kiss on Mr Davidson’s cheek and the whole office seemed to cringe at the PDA. 

“Wait, wasn’t Carol the plus one?” 

“Tell that to her stock share,” Paul answered, bringing his chair in to make some extra room. 

“She can come in whenever she likes,” Mr Davidson warned Ted.

Just because his boss was here did not mean Ted was going to start playing kind. Especially after seeing Melissa did actually have someone to bring. 

“Man, you guys are really looking like 5 year olds right now, ‘bring your family to work day,’ I’ve never heard that at any other company. You guys are way too excited,” Ted found a space to lean up against the wall, snorting. 

“It’s just a nice excuse to see our families, Ted,” Bill frowned, one hand reaching out to Alice who was too occupied playing on her Switch. 

“Yeah, because a lot of talking is getting done between you two,” he snarked. 

“Ted, why do you have to be such an asshole?” Emma sighed, leaning forward from where she had been laying her head on Paul’s chest. “You don’t have to ruin other people’s fun.” 

“I think someone’s just mad they didn’t have anyone to bring,” a wicked grin crossed Sam’s face as he slapped a hand down on Charlotte’s shoulder, knocking her fork from her hand and onto her skirt with a gasp. 

“Uh!” He held up a finger to refute. “That is not true, Melissa didn’t get to bring any family either!” 

The girl’s face turned red but her expression didn’t change. Instead, she cleared her throat and spoke with a voice that was perfectly articulated. “Did you guys know there’s a paintball tournament on this weekend?” 

And Ted slowly felt everyone’s eyes creep up to lock onto him, Melissa gave him an innocent look, Bill’s brow was furrowed, the colonel pursed her lips and averted her eyes, Emma licked her lips. “What? What?” 

“I don’t suppose you’d wanna play a round, Ted?” Emma instigated. “I mean, if a family day is such a shitty day how about a CCRP paintball tournament, ‘caus,” she made a finger gun, pointing it across the table and titling it up to aim at his forehead before mock firing. 

“Emma, I could beat your fucking ass at paintball.” 

“I’d like to see you try!” Paul cut in on behalf of his partner. “I think we’d all really love to play a game with you.” 

“Oh my gosh,” Alice put her Switch down in her lap, peeking up. “Deb was gonna take me-“ she paused to divert her sentence before her father could hear. “I mean, she was telling me about that tournament.” It was a sort of bad save that everyone in the room seemed to notice but Bill. 

“Dad, can I come? Could I bring Deb?” 

“Uh, I think this is just for the adults, sweetie,” he apologised. “Just for the CCRP guys, I’m sorry.”

“Nah bring the kid, and I think I’d like to come,” Sam invited himself. “This Saturday?” He double checked, already on his phone. “I hope you don’t mind if my squad comes along. Rob’s been killing for a chance to enter the tournament.” 

“Me too, I’ll call McNamara,” Schaeffer spoke up in a voice like she was commanding a platoon and not a very small group of office workers. 

Ted really hoped that would make everyone else back down. Surely inviting proper soldiers would not be encouraging, but Emma was looking at him like wounded prey, practically salivating. 

“I’ll get Hidgens to supervise,” she added helpfully with a smile. 

Ted hoped that wasn’t an implication about his biology degree coming in handy for medical aid. Oh my god. Melissa was conniving. He had just upset a whole room of people and she had given them revenge on a silver platter. But hey. He was not a coward. He would live up to his word. 

———————————————————  
Ted was one of the lucky ones who actually fit into the paintball utility vests. 

They were too bulky on people like Alice and Melissa, and too big on Emma. McNamara had to leave the front clip unbuckled just to fit his chest and shoulders in, and Mr Davidson the same. 

Ted couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of Emma. She just wasn’t filling the vest properly, Hidgens had been playing with the buckles to try and tighten it like she was incapable of doing it herself, she was standing there with her shoulders slumped and her fake gun in hand and still being fussed over like a five year old who couldn’t dress herself. 

The prep area had maps of the field up on the wall that Schaeffer was studying carefully, Alice and Deb had gone to their own corner to make some sort of pact or blood bond away from all the adults before the game started. As he continued in his scan of the room he had to quickly rush by his boss and his wife who every time without fail were kissing when he looked. Paul and Bill looked far too nervous about the game, definitely tagging along for someone else’s sake and not their own. McNamara was critiquing the fake military decorations, and at the end of his scan he found Charlotte, hovering anxiously by Sam’s side as he laughed with his cop friends. He was so inconsiderate. 

Ted was just trying to signal her over when Melissa finally took charge of something.  
“We should split up into teams.”

“Now that!” McNamara patted her on the back so hard she almost doubled over. “Is a good place to start, kid. Let’s pick some team captains!” 

Although it was fairly easy to decide who they were going to be. A process of elimination of for starters, who was capable to lead, and that knocked out half the group instantly. When you whittle it down to who was good with guns and not an asshole, there were only so many options left, and people had began to gravitate towards McNamara or Schaeffer. 

“I think I should be a leader, actually,” Sam held up a hand and the duo of cops behind him sneered at his rejection, elbowing him in the side and punching his back to kick him while he was down as good friends should. 

“Oh jeez,” Paul was wringing his hands. Ted bet he wouldn’t last five minutes. “This is just like gym class.” 

“Well then, let’s pick some team members, shall we?” McNamara declared, his finger pointing straight to Paul. 

“Oh,” Paul put a hand to his chest to confirm that. Ted always knew Paul was never the boy who was picked first in sports. This was weird. He made his way over, very self conscious of how he was walking, to Mcnamara’s side. 

“Your pick, Schaeffer.”

Ted was prepping himself to be next. Or maybe third or forth. The cops did have practice with actual guns, after all. But no, the colonel chose Emma. Paul’s jaw seemed to drop at the idea of being opposed to Emma, but Emma only pretended to cock her paintball gun which made Paul pale. 

“What? Her?” Sam spoke up Ted’s thoughts exactly and it pissed him off that they were so similar. “We’re trained with guns, actually,” he snickered like the two team leaders had just made a major loss. 

“Oh great,” McNamara nodded his head up. “Doug, then.” 

Doug drove their elbow into Sam’s side with a jeer, laughing at Rob as they strode over to McNamara’s side. 

“Doug always wins at everything,” Rob scowled, definitely plotting something. 

“I’ll take Rob then,” Schaeffer declared.

“What?” Sam, the ultimate jock, was in shambles. “I’m the chief officer here!” 

His squad members sneered at his defeat. 

“I’ll take Ken,” McNamara clicked his fingers to beckon the man over, and his wife stayed attached to his hand. “Oh I’m taking both of them.” He nodded, no arguments. “PEIP doesn’t believe in splitting up couples, I guess” he added.

“What?” Paul made a vague gesture on Emma’s direction that everyone ignored.

“We’re a package deal, General,” Mr Davidson tucked his head to his wife’s neck with a rumbling laugh. 

“Can we do that?” Paul’s jaw dropped, craning his neck to find Emma in the crowd. “Can we?” He looked between the two team leaders. 

“No,” McNamara, Schaeffer and Emma seemed to say in unison. 

“Paul, I’m gonna take you out,” Emma announced. “I bet I’ll get you before you know it.”

He had no comeback, just gripped his gun tighter. 

“Well I’ll take...” Schaeffer surveyed the thinning crowd, still avoiding Ted and Sam. “Deb, and you can bring your girlfriend.” 

“Yes!” Deb high fived Alice as they scattered over to come stand by the colonel’s side. 

“We’re going to win,” Alice nudged her with a look at the opposing team. “Dad, we’re going to win!” 

“I’ll take Bill, actually,” McNamara chose. 

“That’s not very ‘we don’t split people up’ of you,” Deb chortled before Alice hushed her. 

Ted shot a worried glance around the remaining group. Him, Sam, Melissa and Charlotte? Really? No. He would not be picked last. He refused. He cleared his throat, drew some attention to himself. 

“Charlotte, then.” Charlotte seemed to have let some bottled up frustration out when she was Infected. Perhaps she would do really well. 

“Well. Sam then, I suppose. You said you were good with guns?” McNamara called him over and Ted just about vomited right there and then. 

He was last on the wall, right besides Melissa. Jesus Christ, Melissa. Fresh out of high school, the baby of the group in the presence of actual teenagers, cat coddler, standing at just over half his height. And the colonel chose her over him. 

“Aw, finally, Schaeffer!” She skipped over to stand between Schaeffer and Emma. “I can’t believe you didn’t pick me first!” 

“Back of the line, soldier,” Schaeffer elbowed her with half a smirk. “Don’t make me exchange you for Ted. I’m in this to win, not to make friends.”

“Wait, what?” You could pinpoint the moment her heart broke.

“Sorry, Melissa. You’re good with a bat, not a gun.”

Ted scowled as he made his way over to McNamara’s side, ignoring Bill’s sympathetic smile.

“Uh, hey. We’re one short one,” Emma spoke up. It’s eight to seven.” 

Everyone did their own individual headcheck like they couldn’t trust Emma.  
“Oh. Simple. We’ll take him then,” Schaeffer tipped her head towards Hidgens. 

“Oh, me?” He seemed flattered. Ever spritely for his age. “I mean, if you insist.” He hurried to grab a vest and a gun. 

“Oh my god, Hidgens,” Emma gaped. Ted was fairly sure one hit would shatter all of his bones. 

“I’m perfectly capable, Emma,” he assured her and the rest of the gang. “In fact, I’m quite certain I’ll win.” 

“Well only one team can win,” McNamara gave a hearty chuckle. “And I think it’ll be ours.” 

“Hey, well. Let’s change it then. If one team gets taken out it’s every man for themselves,” Melissa prompted. “Does that sound right?” 

“Yeah, that works,” Mcnamara and Schaeffer agreed. 

Sam shot Ted a meaningful look. And actually, almost everyone else seemed to follow. God. Were people still actually mad at him?

“Very girls versus boys,” Rob started. “Girls versus boys and Doug.” 

“That’s rich coming from you on the girls team,” Doug fired back, hands on their hips. “Misgender me and it’s off with your kneecaps, buddy.”

“I did not misgender you!” He held up his hands in defence. 

Doug gave a grin that showed off their pride in how well they had trained their squad. 

“Last place, huh?” Ted shrugged to Melissa.

“Oh,” she was rubbing her hands, the look on her face suggesting she was not quite though with not being first pick. “Oh, I will not be last place. I’m going to win this thing.” 

“Win?” That wasn’t the first word that ever came to his mind when he looked at her, but all the conversation ended as the sirens blared to let them out into the field. 

Everyone took off, and Ted knew where he was headed. He had taken a quick look at the map and in the five minute grace period for the blue team to get to the other side of the field, he had plans of his own. Right between the border of the red team and the blue team was a tree, and when he got to it he hauled himself up to the highest branch where no one would be looking for him. He loaded his gun.

Everyone was out for him, and that meant he had to hide. If he won, that meant no one was allowed to be mad at him anymore. 

When the second siren went he could see both teams filing out from where they had decided to hide. From the blue side, Rob and Deb seemed to have teamed up, tracking towards the border. He was surprised to see Bill taking some ambition, marching on his own up towards the halfway point. Perhaps he missed the part where he and Alice were on separate teams, that’s something Bill would do. 

Ted lay himself out across the branch like he was some sort of jungle cat, even as they got closer no one had seen him yet. 

They hit a halfway where both teams saw each other and Deb dropped down to her knees with a chuckle to hide from Bill. “I can’t shoot him, he already hates my guts,” she told Rob, ushering him on. “You get him.” 

Rob got down on one knee to take shelter for a moment, leaning out to see where Bill had gone. Only a little more hesitant, he trekked on. 

“Alice?”

Ted snickered through his teeth, clutching a hand to his mouth. Well, of all the people on his team he never expected Bill to make it to the end unfortunately. His dad instincts were too strong, and even if he could see Rob he doubted he would shoot. 

Deb waved Rob in to take the shot. “I know him, he won’t shoot. Promise.” 

Bill refused to cross the line, not quite knowing the rules. He toed it for a second before biting down on his lip and stepping across. 

“First mistake!” Rob laughed loudly, bouncing up to land a clean shot on the man’s vest. “You’re on the bench!” He whooped, far too excited to have the first kill on his hands. 

Bill let out a bother sigh, more upset about being interrupted in his search for his daughter rather than actually being shot. He had only played because Alice was insistent on coming. He was expecting Paul to go out much the same way. 

Rob fisted the sky, forgetting about his teammate in exhilaration and crossing past the red team’s border to continue on his kill streak. 

He watched as Bill huffed and dragged himself back the other way, and as Deb slowly got up to check he had gone, sneaking off after Rob. 

“Well that was kind of racist,” Ted announced his presence. “I mean, the cop just shot the black man. Haven’t heard that before.” 

“Hey! You!” Deb scrambled for her gun, but Ted didn’t play the waiting game and shot her in the shoulder. “Shit!” She cursed. “You’re spawn camping, man!” 

“What? I’m just playing the game to win, and I believe you’re out now, kiddo. You should’ve followed your teammate.” 

“I hope you get fucking shot, bro,” Deb seethed before loading her paintball gun and unloading the whole magazine on Ted’s forehead.  
———————————————————

“The game has only just started,” Davidson cooed. “We don’t have to jump straight to it, do we?” He knelt down besides his wife where she was peering out into the open field behind some decorative metal scraps. 

“Depends, do you want to win?” Carol laughed. “There’s a lot of good people on the other team.”

“I know cadence. But I’ve got you, and that’s good enough for me, sweetheart,” he purred, leaning into her.

She laughed, dropping her stance to wrap her arms around his shoulders. “Hello, dear. What’s this about?”

“The vest suits your hair so well,” his fingers ran through her hair. And they had both seen it coming, but the game was completely forgotten in exchange for each other’s embrace which quickly turned into more. 

“Good god,” came the heavy sigh of Hidgens behind them, but they barely noticed. “Can’t save the kissing for home, can you?” He cocked his gun. “Well, that’s on you, I’m afraid.” And with two shots, the both of them were eliminated from the competition, though it took another few shots for them to realise they were actually out. At least the out bench had a bit more privacy.  
\------------------------------------------  
Melissa thought this was all silly. Couldn’t believe she wasn’t first pick, or at least second or third. “Can I get a show of hands of who actually survived the apotheosis, please?” She growled to herself. The utter heartbreak and betrayal of Schaeffer picking her last. 

She crept along, keeping the weight in the tips of her toes so her steps remained silent, keeping her shoulders down to remain below eyeline, listening out closely for anyone as she made her way to her hiding space. She had to take it slow. According to the speaker: Bill, Deb, Carol and Mr Davidson had already been eliminated. There weren’t too many people left on the red team, five more. She was good at keeping track at things. Oh she was going to make them regret ever picking her last, she was going to-

“Hands up, you’re under arrest.”

Melissa froze, plan forgotten, a smile tugging at her lips. “Doug?”

“Don’t think I wasn’t watching you back there, I know exactly what you’re up to, I knew you’d be headed this way,” they cocked their paintball gun as Melissa raised her hands. 

She blushed. “R-really?” She couldn’t help the stammer. “You were watching me?”

“When can I ever take my eyes off you?” They teased, “hands on your head, up against the wall and I might just spare you.”

Too flustered to do anything but giggle, she obeyed. A forbidden, cross-territory romance? So much better in real life than in the books.

“I came looking for you right away, I knew you’d be dangerous, hun.” Despite the fact they had no handcuffs on them, they grabbed Melissa’s wrists to hold them there. 

“Aw, you think I’m dangerous?” She laughed. She was smiling so wide it hurt. 

“Of course. I know exactly what you’re up to. You’re smart. I have to eliminate you. Mcnamara was a fool for not picking you first,” they added.

Melissa had never been seduced into compliance before. It would probably make cops a lot cooler, because it was certainly working. “Oh you think so?” 

Doug had to hold a hand to her head just to get her to stop trying to turn around, but they only continued with their mock arrest because if Melissa was laughing this much she certainly couldn’t be disliking it. “I know so. If you were on my team, I’d be a human shield for you. You’ve got so much potential,” they ripped Melissa’s paintball gun from her grip. “Shame to see it go, sweetie.” They kept her pinned there.

“Oh well I mean, you could totally let me go and just pretend you never saw me, couldn’t you?” She bargained.

“If I did that for every pretty criminal, I would not be a good cop.” Doug released her hands to press the barrel of the paintball gun up between her shoulder blades. “Any last words?”

“Hey Doug!” Came a voice, loud yet distant, and three seconds later Melissa heard the splattering of paint, and Doug let them go, stepping away.

“Rob!” They shouted back, and Melissa could catch a glance of her teammate perched atop a stairway, he shot her a salute. “You bastard!”

“You always win, Doug! Don’t get so cocky! That’s what’s gonna happen to you if you take five to seduce a girl!”

“You’re just pissed because you’re still single!” Doug took off, leaving Melissa on her own to chase after Rob even though a hit now wouldn’t matter. 

Melissa got her wits back in seconds. She had almost lost over a pretty cop. Typical of her at this rate, but she wouldn’t let love get in the way anymore. Not when it was four to seven. Everything was going according to plan. 

\------------------------------------------

Paul’s team was going fast. He couldn’t be brave, not even if Mcnamara told him he had it all under control. According to the speaker they had just lost Doug, and when he sized up his team it seemed like he was the next to go. Between Ted, Sam, Mcnamara and himself, he was the weakest link. 

He had no big goals to prove himself, he was thinking about how much the shot would hurt once he was hit. He was starting to panic, just a little. That was right up until he turned the corner directly into Emma. His reflexes kicked in before hers, and he pressed her to the wall with his gun.

“Hi,” she began, breathless from the surprise. “You should let me go. You aren’t actually going to hit me with that,” she put her hands on her hips, even dropped her gun down for effect. “You’re a coward, babe.”

“I’m not a coward!”

“You look like you’re crying, babe,” she smirked, giving him a quick kiss. “I can see it all in my head, you’ll let me go and tell me to run and you’ll pretend you didn’t see me. You’ll really work yourself up for it and you just won’t. Why waste your own time when you’ve only got four members left, huh?” She crossed her arms across her chest.

“Hey, you don’t have to be rude about it,” he frowned. He couldn’t see a way this would end with them cuddling on the couch back at home. There would be drama. “How do you know I’m not gonna- not gonna shoot you?”

“Because you can’t even say it without stuttering,” she smoothed one hand up his forearm and then up his shoulder, pulling him in by the neck so they were touching. “I know you Paul. You wouldn’t. You’re gonna let me go and cop all the blame from your team when you lose, all for me. Because you’re sweet like that.” She let a small laugh escape her lips as his face flushed red.

“Actually, you know what Emma?” He used a leg to kick her gun away and her smile dropped. “I’m not going to take any blame!”

She didn’t refute him immediately, but she didn’t seem as confident as before. “You don’t have it in you.”

“Yes I do.” He had destroyed the meteor, he had to remind himself. He pressed the gun to her heart.

“Oh, you do,” she looked down, turning pale. “You do, huh?”

“It’s been so lovely to see you Emma, honestly,” he began a very long winded apology. “I mean, seriously.”

“Paul don’t start this.”

“I mean. Highlight of the match running into you, it’s nothing personal, I swear,” he chuckled, taking the hand that had been running up and down his arms and pressing their foreheads together. It was much more menacing from this end for her it seemed. “I’ll cook dinner for you tonight.”

“Shoot me Paul and we’re over. I’m serious.”

“You’re just saying that. You can’t blackmail me into losing. Cut that out. I’m going to shoot you, and then we’re going to get home tonight, I’ll make your favourite, we’ll go to bed and we won’t argue,” he laid it out for her.

“Nope. Shoot me and I’m sleeping at Hidgens’ tonight,” she added. “Don’t do it, Paul. For real. Let’s just walk away.” 

“I’m just so sorry. But this is what has to be done. Hands up, Emma, and start walking away. It’ll hurt less if the gun isn’t so close.”

She didn’t argue. She took him up on that offer because it would be the best way to stand a chance, but unfortunately he would just not give it to her. “You sound like you’re an executioner.” She raised her hands up, taking a step backwards and looking him in the eye as if to play on his sympathy. 

He let her believe in it for a second, keeping his gun raised but refusing to cock it as she took a step back, and then another, and then another. Twenty paces. She could almost run. He let her believe it, always granting her just one more step, one more second of hope. But then her eyes darted to the side, her smile twitching, and he couldn’t take the risk. He cocked and fired, hitting her in the shoulder.

“Fuck!” She shouted, grasping her shoulder and getting red paint all over her hands. “That really hurts, dude!” She lifted it up to see if maybe her shoulder was bruised, but she couldn’t see through the paint and the uniform anyways. “Oh my god!”

“Wait, I’m sorry, really?” He gaped, his heart shattering as he hurried to her side. “For real?”

Emma looked up, holding out a hand to stop him. “I’m sorry, Paul.”

“Oh, about that break up talk? It’s alright, I knew you were joking.”

She snickered, shaking the paint off her hands. “No, babe. I just wouldn’t turn around if I were you.”

“Oh you’re a fool, young man,” came Hidgens’ voice, grim and serious. “You really think you could get away with shooting Emma?” 

He couldn’t see it, but by the way Emma was laughing he definitely had his gun trained on Paul’s back. All of Paul’s confidence drained out of him like someone had pulled a plug. The heat in his body was replaced by cold, cold dread. 

“You really think I haven’t been keeping an eye on her, son? You should’ve just listened to her, and let her go. It was a shame it had to be you of all people, Paul. This’ll hurt me more than it hurts you.” Paul recognised the sound of the gun cocking, and his lower lip began to shake. This was going to hurt, hurt really badly too, according to Emma. “Sorry, young man. But rule number one? Don’t hurt Emma.”

He stumbled forward as it shot into his back, and with a giggle, Emma helped him catch his balance. “Ouch?”

“Yeah! Ouch!” The more sympathetic part of his mind he had just been suppressing showed itself again, and he grew worried about some of the younger participants. Melissa and Alice and Deb, guns this strong were not made for them. He was worried for anyone who would shoot Hidgens, too. He wasn’t the eldest, but he certainly wasn’t in peak health. Fortunately for his nerves he did not have to wait long.

“And rule number two! Don’t waste your time with dramatic monologues, theatre kid!” 

Hidgens was pushed to his knees as red paint splattered down his neck and into his silver hair. A voice that obnoxious could only belong to Ted. 

He was waving his gun up in the air, laughing triumphantly at his victory. 

“Hey bastard!” Emma shouted back. “You’re out already! You’ve got paint all over you! Get off the field! You did not have to do that!” She hurried over to help Hidgens up. 

“I’m not out!” He wiped another hand across his paint stained face. “Deb open fired on me!”

Emma exchanged a look with Paul. “Oh, we’re allowed to do that?” And with an unspoken language, Paul and Emma had made the mutual decision to empty the rest of their pallet on Ted.

\------------------------------------------

“Charlotte!” Ted gasped as he finally ran into her, she swung her paintball gun up with a yelp.

“Don’t make me- oh, Ted! You’re already out. Are you alright?”

“I am going to bruise so badly,” he answered, not bothering to explain he wasn’t actually out. “You just out here on your own? Where’s the rest of your team?”

“Doing more work than I am, I bet,” she gave a shy chuckle. “Oh, I haven’t seen any of them. Even little Alice and Melissa are still in, I believe. It’s only my Sam and the General left on your team now, isn’t it?”

He nodded. To be honest, he wasn’t going to shoot Charlotte, even if he still was in the game. He wasn’t going to put her through the panic either. “Yep.”

“Oh and I’m so sorry,” she looked like she wanted to hug him, but the paint he was soaking in was a bit of a deterrence. “People really are mad at you.” 

“Oh, no kidding huh?” He shook his hands to try and get some paint off them. Hey, he wasn’t out yet, he could still win and get the public opinion back in his favour. 

That was right up until Sam came screeching in, and with a move that lacked any sympathy and any foresight, (or intelligence at all for that matter) shot his wife right in the chest. 

“Sam!” She dropped her gun, wincing as she placed a hand to her vest. “You got me!” 

“Yeah! You’re staying too still Char, you actually have to move around to make sure you don’t get shot, that’s on you!” He raised his gun victoriously. 

“Oh, I suppose I’m not very good at this game, am I?” She clutched her hands to her vest, nodding. 

“Don’t say that. You’ve lasted longer than everyone else!” Ted tried to reason with her before she could get down. 

“Oh, I suppose so,” she gave him a pity laugh.

“You were the second person out on your team, Char. Right next to an elderly man. Don’t let it go to your head.” He tilted his head in the direction off the field, and she trudged off. 

“Hey! That was way too harsh, man!” He shoved Sam. “She’s your wife, show a little compassion.”

“This is a game! I’m not not going to shoot her! Are you in or are out? Where the hell have you been?” Sam would’ve pushed him back if it wasn’t for the paint. 

“I’m still in! But everyone who’s out keeps shooting me!” 

“You should go take a seat, man. Every time someone doesn’t shoot you it’s because you’ve tricked them. That’s cheating. Charlotte would’ve shot you- oh, well maybe not, but someone else would’ve,” he huffed. 

“Come on. They’ve got a whole ass team and it’s just the three of us!” 

Sam looked like he was going to snap back but he grabbed Ted’s collar and yanked him down to the ground, ducking down behind a wooden barrier. “Shit!” He called as a blue paintball splattered across the back wall. “Rob, get here, dickhead! Show yourself!” 

There was another shot, just skimming Sam’s head which sent him ducking right down. 

“You guys have some infighting problems I see,” Ted rolled his eyes, gripping his gun. “Jesus. Watch this.” He stood up, locating Rob just up ahead, standing on top of a raised platform. “Aw man!” He slapped a hand across his knee. 

“Ah!” His face lit up with a grin. “I got you!” 

“You didn’t, actually,” he loaded his gun, landing a clean shot that wiped away his grin. “Everyone on the bench did.” 

“Oh, fuck off,” Rob looked like the only thing holding him back was his honour to his badge, and how bad it’d look if he as a cop rage fired. He jumped down from the platform to storm off to the bench. 

“That was a cheap move!” Sam scolded. 

“I never told him I was out! He believed that himself! What does it matter? He isn’t even on our team!” Did Sam hate him enough to betray his team?

“Yeah well you’re covered in paint so maybe you should piss off and leave the General and me to it, okay? We’re the only ones with actual gun experience,” he rolled his eyes, widening his stance. “We’ll finish this off. Christ, what is it? A couple of teenage girls?” He reloaded his gun.

“Yeah, a couple teenage girls,” a young voice broke the tension and they whipped around to face it. 

That was Bill’s girl. She was still in? “Uh.”  
He couldn’t just shoot an eighteen year old girl. Even Sam seemed to hesitate. 

Alice however, did not. She fired a shot straight into Ted’s chest. “That’s for my girlfriend, idiot.”

Sam scrambled for his gun and Alice shot him while he was fumbling. 

“Don’t argue so loud. It makes me super uncomfortable.” She seemed to take some cold joy in shooting their argument to pieces. She pointed her gun towards the off field, years of bottled up rage showing up unbridled in her eyes. “You lost. Get to the bench.”

——————————————————

“It’s three to one,” Charlotte sighed as Ted and Sam came to sit on either side of her. 

“Oh what? Because we think a military General is going to lose to the wonder blue team? A colonel is just a lower rank than a general. Alice is an eighteen year old girl, and Melissa is Melissa,” Sam pointed at the TV’s were they could see it all going down. 

“Well, the General and the Colonel have been staying low,” Bill told everyone. Even now McNamara was only just heading out to the centre in search of an opponent now that he was the only red team member left. 

“Yeah I guess,” Emma shrugged. She was still ignoring Paul and was resting her head on Hidgens’ shoulder. “They’re in the military and we’re just a bunch of kids. They could probably kill us with a paintball gun if they wanted.” 

“You really think so?” Bill began wringing his hands.

“Don’t worry. McNamara isn’t going to kill your daughter,” Rob was leaning up against the wall, breaking away from betting with Doug. “Although, Mcnamara is definitely going to win.” 

“That’s a bit of treason,” Deb’s brows knitted. “You’re on the colonel’s team, sir.” 

“Yeah I know. But it’s what Sam said. A General is a General, and he said he totally aced his marksmanship course,” Rob continued, opening up the betting to the rest of the bench. 

“Well maybe the colonel did too?” Charlotte suggested.

“She was into swordsmanship, actually,” Carol informed them all.

The blue team scanned the waiting room of all its gun memorabilia before sharing a collective wince. 

“I think the colonel could win!” Paul suggested hopefully, trying to get Emma’s favour back. 

“Suck up,” she just told him. “But yes, she will.” 

“Well all for Mcnamara raise their hand,” Sam rallied them. He raised his own hand and Rob followed, then Ted. Mr Davidson looked up from the corner where he was kissing Carol (as Bill put it, ‘they’ve been like that since they got here, and they haven’t stopped) and put his hand up too. Carol didn’t seem to have heard the question, and just did as her husband had. 

“Wow. No loyalty to your own sister, huh?” Doug crossed their arms. 

“It’s loyalty to the red team,” Mr Davidson jumped in to defend her. 

“I love her, but she’s much better with swords,” Carol had to admit, but she had hit the limit of time she could spend apart from Ken and they went straight back to kissing. 

Deb snorted, pointing a finger. “What the fuck, is this allowed? What the fuck, is that allowed?” 

“Deb, don’t swear, please,” Bill scolded. 

“It’s a Vine!” She held her hands up. She only seemed to just realise no one in the waiting room was her age. 

“So the rest are votes for Schaeffer?” Charlotte tried to steer the topic back to the voting, her own palm up. Emma shot her hand up first and Paul followed suite. Bill and Hidgens added their votes too. 

“That’s five for five,” Ted rallied them up. “We’re missing two, who didn’t vote?” 

“Me,” Deb stuck her hand up. “I think Alice will win. I can’t believe where some of you are with your voting priorities. You aren’t gonna vote for your own daughter, Bill?” 

“Oh- I didn’t know we could-“ he stammered. 

“I vote for Melissa,” Doug offered up. “She has a plan.” 

“I can’t believe any of you are voting for those two against people in the actual military,” Sam snorted. 

“Being in the military doesn’t make you invincible,” Deb crosses her arms. Doug just responded by kicking him in the shins, and they all turned back to the TVs to watch the final showdown. 

———————————————————

Schaeffer knew the General would be around here somewhere. He never played the hiding game, he’d be out in the centre of the field and she was going to take him. 

“Oh Colonel!” He called her from where he was standing, just in plain sight, one hip popped nonchalantly. “You’re still hanging about. Good game?” 

“I don’t play games, General,” she loaded up her gun for the first time. Anyone else would’ve been taken out too easily, and Mcnamara must’ve had the same idea because according to the speaker he hadn’t eliminated anyone either. “Can’t believe I haven’t heard your name over the big voice.”

“Same for you, I thought you’d gone over the hill, Schaeffer. It’s just us now, you know.” He was making no move to aim his gun like he was mocking her. “Hey, Schaeffer,” he called her so she would look up from loading. “Spud.” 

“Wow!” She finished loading. “Don’t fang me, John. No hard feelings but I intend to win.”

“That’s a bit of a Blue Falcon, Colonel. And there are consequences for this.” He raised his gun to aim it at her. “You’ve always been an expectant, three timer.” 

“Below the belt, John,” she cocked her gun. “Burn bag.” 

“Ate up. 

“Geardo.”

“That’s rich coming from you, chest candy.” 

The general consensus from the bench was still even, except now with only added confusion. Tension was brewing on the bench, Ted’s nails digging into his knees to urge them to fire, even Carol and Mr Davidson had put their very teenage-esque make out session on pause. The trio of cops has started betting louder on who they thought would win, Emma was so entranced she almost forgot she was still mock-angry with Paul and snatched up his hand to hold. 

“You shoot first, Schaeffer. Free hit. Go ahead.” 

“No, you.” 

“Well will someone!?” Deb snapped at the screen. 

“Wanna western shout-out this? Just to be fair?”

“Yeehaw, General.” 

“Oh my god,” Sam rested his head on the wall. 

There was an uncomfortable mix of tension and boredom floating about the waiting room. 

“If I were either of them I’d just turn around now and shoot,” Emma confessed. “For a final show down this is a little slow.” 

“It’s about the drama, dear,” Hidgens pointed out, on the edge of his seat. 

But before they could count to ten a splatter of blue paint sprayed across McNamara’s chest and he let out a grunt.  
“Schaeffer!” He dropped his gun, not even able to finish his sentence before the colonel whipped around to fire a shot. 

Schaeffer lowered her gun, noticing he had already been shot. “What the fuck?” 

“Who shot me!?” He glanced around. 

“Well that’s a win for the blue team!” Schaeffer did not care, she probably would’ve gone through some intense soul searching if she had been the one to shoot her General anyways. 

“Not so fast,” someone cocked their gun behind her. “Once we took out the other team it would be every man for themselves, right? You agreed.” 

“Melissa,” she couldn’t bite down her smirk. “Now this is a blue falcon.” 

“Jokes on you. I don’t even know what that means.” The girl placed the barrel of her gun to Schaeffer’s back. 

“Careful with that, girl, or you’ll blow my shoulder off.” Could she counter Melissa if she wanted? Yes. But grabbing the girl by the neck wouldn’t be necessary in just a game. “I don’t think you know what you’re doing.”

“Oh I do. This is what you get for picking me last, Schaeffer.” 

“Well I can see that I might’ve made the wrong decision now, but I wouldn’t be so confident you’re going to win, Melissa. I’m not out yet,” she still had a finger on the trigger of her paintball gun, and if she moved quickly enough she could get her. Schaeffer wasn’t big on ‘friendly competition.’ “I didn’t expect you to last this long. You’re sneaky.”

“Yeah. I read warrior cats growing up,” she shrugged. Schaeffer didn’t get it. “I just outlasted the competition. I didn’t care about taking anyone else out. But you betrayed me, Schaeffer. And I need my revenge.” 

“You’re hesitating.”

“I’m just relishing in the sound of you admitting you made a mistake,” Melissa raised her tone to hold the floor so Schaeffer wouldn’t speak and break the silence. 

“You wouldn’t.” 

“I would and I will.”

“You’re doing an awful lot of talk and not a lot of shooting if that’s the case,” she grinned. “You’re not gonna shoot.”

“Try me.”

“It’s not happening.”

She fired. 

“Jesus Christ!” She hunched her shoulders up. “Point blank, Melissa? Really!?” 

She didn’t even seem to muster up any sympathy, and kept a stone cold glare as the speaker announced Schaeffer had been eliminated and a siren sounded overhead. “I bet you’re feeling pretty sorry now,” she placed her hands on her hips. “Because I won! And this wouldn’t have happened if you had just picked me first! Or I mean, second, even!” 

Schaeffer turned around with a grimace to yank Melissa’s gun from her hands. “You have no clue how to use that thing. You’ve just done my back in with that. I’m not young, Melissa!”

“Well who cares! Physio is on me, Schaeffer, because I won!” She pumped her fist into the air.

“Reckon anyone is gonna tell her that siren doesn’t mean she won?” Deb leant back against the wall. 

“Think again.” 

Melissa stumbled forward as the shot slammed into her back, falling into Schaeffer’s open arm. She caught her around the waist before she could drop to her knees. “What?” Melissa breathed. 

“That’s what happens when you get to full of yourself,” Schaeffer tutted. “You can never overlook the young ones.”

Alice was the last figure on the field, and the victory siren began to sound instead. “I don’t get what it is with you guys are your long monologues. Just shoot and be done with it.”  
———————————————————

People had to spend a very long time explaining to Melissa that she had not heard the victory siren, but the siren for the final two players. It didn’t seem to get through to her that she had made an oversight, perhaps she was in shock. It was too much betrayal for a girl with an already fragile sense of mind, and Schaeffer couldn’t apologise enough for taking her gun off her before the game was actually over. From what was gathered around the office the next day through osmosis, Schaeffer practically had to nurse her back to health mentally and physically with a lot of awkward reassurance on her behalf, some icepacks for the both of them and quite a few rounds of tea. 

McNamara couldn’t believe a story about Schaeffer being so emotional, but Carol had let the office in on a few, sweet secrets about Schaeffer’s softer side, and McNamara had teased Schaeffer the whole way back to HQ in an attempt to get her to open up more. Schaeffer had shut him down and bullied him about his poor team picks, in which he reminded her of Melissa’s betrayal. 

The HFPD were all pretty flat. Most of them still pissed at each other for taking each other out, all nursing a bruise or two, but the real loss was that no one won the bets at all. Melissa had been a complete oversight (not for Doug, as they would reiterate) but Alice being the real winner was completely uncalled for. Frustrated, Sam had made the threat to arrest Alice too next time he caught Deb and her smoker gang doing something dumb. At least Doug could hold their half-right bet above the other’s heads and scold Rob for shooting them. If he hadn’t fired at them they would’ve gotten Melissa out, and then the General or the Colonel probably would’ve won. Sam, who had not heard that half of the story had shoved a series of menial yet tedious tasks onto the officer as punishment. 

Professor Hidgens had learnt he still had some youth left in him which he bothered as many people as he could into a rematch that would never happen. The surprise winner had still taken too much out of everyone. Emma had even noticed the bruise on Hidgens’ back when he came in for class the following day. 

Even Charlotte and Sam had not argued that night. He had some passion in complaints they had both shared, but at least Charlotte was move forgiving towards the teenager who had won. She had quite enjoyed the outcome, recounting it to each of her cats as she got home that night, trying not to pet them too much lest she get paint all over their clean pelts. She and Bill had talked over it for weeks, and from their volume (which always quite bothered Paul) they thought the whole town should know. 

Deb and Bill had lauded over Alice for a while, none of the compliments of which she accepted though. In fact she had almost forgotten about the match by the end of the week. Deb had told the whole story to Sof and Danny over and over, it wasn’t about betting right, it was just about how great her girlfriend had been. She couldn’t stop thinking about the looks on everyone’s faces. The whole room had been watching the Schaeffer Melissa situation, so seeing Alice show up on the cameras gave her a reaction she would savour forever. “You were so quick, I loved the part where you told them all to quit monologuing. Watching some of those guys on the camera, oh my god,” Deb chuckled. “Paul and Emma? It was practically foreplay.” 

“Some people always want to argue,” she had told Deb out of her father’s earshot. “Arguing always wastes time, I just wish they wouldn’t,” she continued. “Anyway. I just wanted the match to be over so I could get home and play new horizons.” 

The aftermath hadn’t gone exactly as planned for Paul and Emma. He carried through on his promise to make her dinner, he wasn’t expecting to have to serve it to her though. “I’m just in so much pain, Paul. You broke all my bones. It’s your fault and you should feel bad about it.” But at least she hadn’t slept at Hidgens. When he woke up in the morning she had already left for work, but she had left him an ice pack for his bruises, so he assumed their mock fight was over. 

The office had a pleasant chatter to it the next day at least, well, except for Melissa. Everyone was too focused on other things to scold Mr Davidson for bringing his wife in to work again even without a family day guise. He hadn’t been too tough on filling out work, he almost considered letting Ted take the day off for the sheer amount of bruises he had accumulated but he had been so pleased to bring Carol in he had forgotten to tell him. So Ted did come, made his way through the office receiving a few strange stares from coworkers that had not been to the tournament. Melissa offered to run down to the pharmacy to get him an ice pack, so at least she was recovering from the shock, but Ted had declined. Because even if he didn’t win, let alone his team, hey, at least no one was mad at him anymore.


	2. revenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mr Davidson seemed to enjoy the tournament much more than his coworkers, but they need some encouragement to play again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhhhhhh
> 
> idk why I'm back here I've been cyberbullied into finishing this piece but also it's kind of for ourfandomcrazyuniverse ily so as a disclaimer I did steal the ethan alice dynamic from them including nicknames & also if I didn't cut it out the name Lake is also theirs anyways this sucks ass don't read it lmao also I literally don't know why melissa is so annoying in this. Also the formatting is really really off and idk how to fix it i'm so sorry

“Hey,” Mr Davidson pushed open the door to the break room. Standing there for a second to stare at Paul and his friends.

“Hey, sir,” Ted gave an awkward wave back. “What brings you to the break room?” It was an odd place for him to be considering he was already chewing on an apple.

They had to wait for him to swallow his mouthful and wipe his lips before he continued. “Remember that thing we did a couple months ago?” 

“Work?” Paul blinked. 

“Oh, it’s the one month anniversary of Ted falling out of his seat during the video conference with that lovely investor,” Melissa chimed in with a wide grin until Ted elbowed her.

“You are so annoying. Why did you have to tell everyone that?”

“Fall off your chair?” Bill asked, gripping onto the sides of his seat. “How did you manage that?”

“Oh no. Were you alright?” Charlotte touched a finger to her chin in concern. 

“I was fine! And I’d almost forgotten about it until she brought it up!” He threw himself back in his chair with a scowl.. 

Melissa laughed, sticking her spoon in her yoghurt. “Well I could never forget! It was great! I wrote it down in the minutes and everything!” 

“Well you ruined it more than me because you laughed so hard you cried and had to leave the room!” He elbowed her again before she could start laughing like that again. “Shut up.” He picked up her spoon and shoved it back to her like he was giving a child a lollipop.

“Oh well yes, that was very funny I will say,” Mr Davidson confirmed. “But I was talking about that paintball tournament! Wasn’t that fun?” 

A deafening silence made Paul’s blood run cold. “Oh yeah, it was a little bit of fun as a one off thing right?” He waved a hand to quiet his friends from agreeing. “Just like, a thing you do once. Right guys?” 

Everyone nodded slowly and Mr Davidson heaved a sigh. “Oh don’t say that! You liked it didn’t you Melissa? Didn’t you win?” 

“Didn’t I win?” Melissa stuck her spoon back into her yoghurt. “No! No I didn’t! I was disarmed and shot unfairly!” She stood up from her chair to smack her hands on the table. 

Charlotte flinched back from her hands, clearing her throat. “Well it wasn’t entirely awful was it?” 

“That’s right, you didn’t win!” Mr Davidson recalled. “How do you all feel about some revenge?” 

Melissa dropped right back down to her chair to return to her yoghurt like she hadn’t just heard that. 

“Oh. Well maybe we should leave it to the younger kids. They seemed to enjoy it a lot last time!” Bill suggested instead.

Mr Davidson’s face hardened. “Who said I was giving you a choice? It’s going to be company mandatory.”

“The whole company?” Paul gulped. That sort of game would never come to an end.

“No. Just you five. And Carol. And Carol’s bringing her sister who’s bringing her friends.”

“Schaeffer!” Melissa stood back up, very much reminding Paul of an excited puppy. “Is she coming?”

“Yeah!” Mr Davidson nodded. “And Bill, Alice did so well, you’ll have to bring her and her friends again! And Charlotte, your husband’s friends were great competition!” Although he did not specifically name Sam along with them.

“So, just ‘us five’ but also a dozen more?” Ted stopped him before he could get ahead of himself. 

“Well the more the merrier, right? Or the bigger the prize, whichever one you’d like to look at it as.”

Paul for one just saw it as a bigger opportunity to get hurt. And if Emma caught on -which she would- she would definitely be jumping at the chance to get some revenge. And oh man, the bruises. 

“Melissa, organise that for me will you?” He flicked a hand at her. “You can use the company credit card. Just make sure you get the right number of players.”

“Uh, o-okay,” she picked up her yoghurt to take with her to her desk. “Mandatory paintball, but god forbid we fill up the softball team!” She huffed to herself as she hurried out. 

“And Paul, you know what you could really help me with?” Paul froze up as Mr Davidson selected him. “Go on a coffee run and go see if your girlfriend wants to come again! She has such great spirit.” 

He started to shake his head, Emma couldn’t hear about this. But he had already promised Bill they’d go down to get coffee. Maybe he could just keep it a secret and tell Mr Davidson that Emma said no. “Yeah, sure Mr Davidson. I’ll go ask.” 

“Wow, he sure is excited isn’t he?” Bill mumbled as they left. 

“Yeah, and you know he only had a good time because he could bring Carol along. He was eliminated like second or third, I don’t get what fun he’s talking about!” Paul exclaimed, glad his friend agreed with him. “Are you actually going to bring Alice along?” 

“Well I’ll offer an invite to her in case but I don’t think I’m encouraging it. Whenever she’s in town she just likes to spend all her time with Deb and those friends of hers. She wouldn’t want to tag along with her old dad I’m sure,” he shrugged, heaving a sigh from deep in his lungs. “She thought it was all very stupid.” He did have his phone out though.

“Well her girlfriend seemed to like it!” 

“Well Deb went out quite early too,” Bill corrected him. “She was just happy to see Alice doing so well,” he sounded like he had more to say but trailed off. “Oh, uh oh. It’s that girl again.” He held a hand out to bring Paul’s pace down. 

“Oh, her!” Paul huffed, already shooting a glare at the Greenpeace worker who always seemed to hang around Beanies. He paused, stomping his foot with a frustrated sigh. He couldn’t avoid her, not when she was just outside of Beanies. “Just make it look like we’re having a really in-depth conversation and maybe she won’t interrupt us,” he whispered, clearing his throat. “So Bill, isn’t it just so crazy what’s going on right now? Like how does it make you feel because it makes me feel a little bothered.”

“Oh uh yes,” Bill nodded, but he wasn’t talking fast enough so Paul had to snatch the floor back. 

“So bothering right? Because I just think, I just think it’s annoying and-“

“What’s the frown for?” His nonsensical ramblings were cut short by that girl. She drummed her fingernails on the back of her clipboard. “What’s so awful back at the office?”

Bill cleared his throat to signal that he could talk for Paul instead, which was probably good considering how angry Paul could get at this girl sometimes. “Our boss is making us participate in a company paintball league.”

Even though Bill was the one who spoke she was still looking at Paul. “Oh boohoo, company paintball. You ever hear of climate change buddy?” She scoffed, rolling her eyes down to her clipboard. 

“Ugh. Come on Bill.” He grabbed his wrist to pull him into Beanies. “I wish I could beat her in a game of paintball,” he grumbled, closing the door behind them.

Although he was greeted with far more noise than he usually was as he entered, and let out a groan at the volume. 

Nora, Zoey and Emma seemed to be engaged in a very passionate argument from all three sides. So much so he barely had a clue what any of them were talking about because he couldn’t make it out, that was until the little bell above the door stopped ringing and they all seemed to notice their company, freezing. 

“Oh, never mind, it’s just Paul,” Zoey shook her head. “Anyways you’re literally supposed to store them upside down, so the syrup can get to the top of the jar.”

“No! You can’t store them that way,” Emma shook her head. “They have a nozzle on the top for a reason. You literally cannot put them upside down.”

“You can if you’re not an idiot!” Zoey bit back, having no other retort.

“I’m not asking how you store them, I’m just saying don’t keep them by the machines when they’re hot!” Nora brought the argument back to its centre. “And then I don’t care if you put them the right way up or not!” 

“Yeah but which is the right way, Nora?” Emma inquired. “We need your opinion on this.”

“Um, can I get a coffee?” Paul asked, raising a hand up for attention. “Just-just a black coffee please?” 

“And two iced caramel frappes, please,” Bill added while they seemed to have their attention.

“Oh, yeah. Yeah of course,” Emma shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Sorry, Paul. We were just in the middle of something important.” 

“Emma, Zoey, go wipe down the tables,” Nora huffed, starting on the drinks herself. “How are you two?” She asked as she pulled out the pitcher. “You look a bit worried, Paul.”

“My boss is making us do this mandatory paintball league thing,” Paul murmured, bumping one fist up against the table. 

“Oh is he?” She asked with polite interest. “I didn’t take Ken as the type to want to destroy his employees,” she bit down on her tongue as she focussed on the cream. “Well, now that you bring it up that sounds very satisfying about now,” she chuckled to herself, finishing off the caramel frappe and tidying up the bench.

“Score!” Emma clapped her hands together, interrupting the peace. “She put the syrup up the right way! Haha!” Her laugh winded up into a bit of a high pitched cheer.

He turned around to see that both girls had been watching Nora very intently and not cleaned the tables at all. And now Zoey was looking quite angry. 

Emma threw her cleaning rag back over her shoulder to come to Paul’s side and lean over the bench. “More importantly, what’s Mr Davidson making you do? We missed that part.”

“Uh,” Paul stammered, procrastinating his answer by paying, tipping, and taking a sip of his coffee. 

“Another paintball tournament!” Bill answered for him, assuming he was just preoccupied. 

Emma’s jaw dropped. “No way! Can I come? I wanna win this time!” 

“You’re really making plans on the clock?” Nora asked, handing Bill his coffee over Emma who was still sprawled on the counter. “Emma, don’t put your head on the counter.”

Emma lifted her head back up, taking a step back from the counter. “Can you ask him if I can come?” 

“He’s actually sent me over to invite you, actually,” Paul admitted with a groan, preparing to be threatened.

“Oh paintball?” Zoey leant an elbow on the glass display cabinet. “Hayley and Toni and I were gonna go but then they bailed on me.”

“Because I put them on a shift,” Nora reminded her. “Also don’t lean on the glass. Can you clean that?” 

“Well I’m sure if you wanted to come Mr Davidson would love to have you,” Bill agreed with a hint of uncertainty in his tone. 

“Nora, you should come too,” Zoey invited her. 

“Keep leaning on the glass and I’m going to have to,” she huffed, washing down the pitcher. “Very bold of you to give me a legal excuse to beat you, girls.” 

With that, Zoey flung herself back from the glass cabinet, hands up in defence. “Got it. Sorry, Nora.” 

“Hah!” Emma squawked, slapping a hand to her thigh and then immediately wincing as her hand came down on her scar tissue, earning an equally as obnoxious laugh from Zoey. 

“Girls!” 

Quick to avoid getting grouped in on the blame, Emma passed Zoey her spray bottle. “Wait, so you wanna come Nora?” 

“I didn’t say that, I’m just saying Ken is a very clever man. Oh, no offence to you two,” she waved an apologetic hand to Bill and Paul. “But I have some very troublesome employees,” it was a good natured scolding, but a scolding nonetheless and the other two raced back to finish cleaning the tables. 

“Tell Ken I appreciate his hypothetical offer,” she begun as she passed his coffee over. “But-“

She was cut off by a clatter, and all three of them whipped around to see Zoey and Emma standing over an upturned table.

Paul couldn’t actually tell what had happened, whether someone had pushed it or if Emma had tripped on it, but apparently it didn’t matter, because both of them looked guilty and Nora did not look very happy. 

“Actually, tell Ken I’d gladly accept his offer if he’ll have me.” Without taking her glare away from her employees she boxed the drinks up into their carry trays, with a short goodbye and Paul and Bill hurried out before they could see the aftermath. 

“Oh no,” Bill started. “That’s a lot of people.”

“I don’t think I could shoot Nora! Not if it came to it!” Paul was already flustered. That invite was only for Emma. “What if I shoot her and I get banned?” 

“Yikes. You seem a little worse than before,” the Greenpeace girl was still standing by the door. “What did you do in there? They’re being loud.”

“Uh, for your information they are arguing over syrup, I didn’t do anything!” Paul spluttered, holding up a finger to show that he wasn’t done speaking. “I was just saying that I would not shoot an acquaintance! Because I am not a bad guy, okay?”

“I’d shoot you in a game of paintball,” the girl shrugged it off, lifting up a hand nonchalantly to swat Paul away from her personal space. 

“Oh, Paul, just drop it,” Bill tried to advise his red-in-the-face friend. “Don’t-“

“Oh you would!? Because I wouldn’t even let you get the chance!” He swiped around the air with his hands. “I’ll have you know I did really well in the last game, I came-“ he paused to count it out on his fingers. “Pretty high!” He snapped. “Ish,” he added, not wanting to make a liar of himself just in case she found out that he really only hit half way. Maybe a little over. 

“Well. That’s your problem. If I was in a paintball game I would just win,” she shrugged, shaking her head. “People get too caught up in the drama of a game like that.” 

Having learnt a fair lesson about monologues from Alice after that game, he gave a frustrated shake of his head. “I wouldn’t! No monologues from me! Monologues are for theatre kids and I am not a theatre kid!” 

Bill put a hand on Paul’s shoulder just to guide him a step back from the Greenpeace girl so he wasn’t spitting on her. “Alright, Paul. Let’s go. I’m so sorry ma’am. I hope we didn’t bother you.”

“Do you wanna see me beat you? Because I have an open invite to invite anyone and if you want me to prove it then I will!” He threatened. 

“Sure,” she scribbled something down on her clipboard. “But you won’t. Politely sir, I will obliterate you, and if I do you have to sign up. For real this time.” She clapped a hand to her clipboard. “Monthly, too.”

“Oh well watch me win! And if I win-“

“What, you don’t have to sign up? So you don’t want to help save the planet?” She countered, one hand on her hip.

“Oh! Oh you-!” Paul was interrupted as Bill grabbed his shoulder to guide him away. 

“Sorry, ma’am. I’m so sorry,” Bill gave an apologetic and tense smile as he hurried him away.

“An apology for what!” Paul gaped. “What has she done to deserve it, Bill?”

“Well no one deserves to be shouted at Paul,” Bill broke it down like he was explaining it to a child so Paul batted his hand off his shoulder.

“No, no. I know that. We just argue a lot.” He took an angry sip of his drink. “Ridiculous. Sometimes I cannot stand that girl.” 

Back at the office, Ted was standing by Melissa’s desk alongside Mr Davidson, the two men were leaning over Melissa’s shoulders as she worked.

“Paul!” Mr Davidson beckoned him over. “What did she say? Will she come?”

He nodded. Unfortunately. “Yes, she said she will. And her coworkers Nora and Zoey would love to come too if you’d have them.”

“And we picked up an extra along the way.”

“Oh of course! It’s been a while since I’ve seen Nora last anyways! Melissa, add them on.”

“I don’t think this is the best use of the company credit card, Mr Davidson,” Ted gave a wary grumble. 

“Well I don’t remember asking you, Ted. Write it down, Melissa.”

She gave no response other than to just start typing faster. 

Bill pulled out his phone as his text chime went off and he showed it to Paul as he read. “Alice says she can’t come because she was doing something with her friends this weekend.” He repeated the last part a little louder for Mr Davidson. “She says she appreciates the invite, but she has this little gang she likes to hang out with so-“

“Just invite them too. You said kids like this stuff. Think of it as helping a local business,” Mr Davidson advised. “How many of her friends?”

“Including Alice there are six of them. It’s okay, I’ll just tell her-“

“It’s fine! Count them in, Melissa.”

“Well with that many people,” Melissa shut her eyes tight to do the math in her head before giving up and breaking out her calculator instead.

“Twenty four,” Ted answered for her after a moment of watching her struggle. “If we’re including everyone from the last time plus the new gang. Which is ridiculous. Surely we don’t-“

“I think you mean surely we do,” Mr Davidson stopped him. “Is that all handled then Melissa? Can you take care of it?” 

“Hey look,” when Paul’s phone went off he showed it to Bill too.

‘Thanks babe ily now my boss is gonna beat my ass the table was not my fault zoey was just wiping it down too hard and the beanies tables suck ass anyways nora is gonna kill me so that’s on u. If u shoot me again I’m actually breaking up w u fr so think carefully abt ur decisions :/‘

Melissa spoke up after quietly clearing her throat. “Well, with twenty four we have to go to one of the bigger rooms though. It’s a little pricier. Maybe some of us should sit out. I’ll volunteer.”

“How much?” Mr Davidson leant in before flinching back. “Oh. That certainly is-“ he stopped himself with a cough, patting his chest. 

“I’ll sit out!” Paul volunteered too while the option was open. 

“Oh, maybe I will too. It’s okay, Alice doesn’t have to come along. Maybe I’ll take her and her friends a different weekend.” 

Mr Davidson seemed about to oblige when Melissa let out an audible gasp, her hands flying to her mouth to cover it up. “Oh!”

“Huh?” 

She didn’t answer vocally, but tapped a manicured nail to her screen.

“Well, well, well,” Mr Davidson let out a very calculating laugh. “Will you look at this, boys.” He adjusted his glasses to get a better look. “If your tournament is classified as a sports business event a minor cash prize can be arranged. Prices are increased as 50% of the total price is reallocated to prize money.” 

Paul started shaking his head on instinct. “So there’s a prize?” 

“What classified it as a ‘sports business event’?” Ted asked, never having heard that before. 

“Twenty or more experienced players from different facets.” 

“Well I don’t know what it means by facets but surely we have one of those,” Mr Davidson was getting that smile back and Paul knew sitting out wasn’t an option anymore. 

“Facets, like different areas. To make sure there’s no scams in getting the prize money, I suppose,” Melissa explained. “We’ll surely CCRP, the HFPD and Beanies count as facets, right? And PEIP? We’ve got a tonne of facets.” She spun her office chair around as she was working it out. “I could probably talk my way into it anyways.” Melissa seemed more eager about the chance to coerce someone into getting that deal more than the actual tournament. 

But honestly, a cash prize was fairly alluring. Although that sort of motivation could get a bit more dangerous than ‘just wanting to win.’ But he was once again reminded he had no choice by his bosses grin. 

———————————————————

“A cash prize?” Emma cooed. “If you or I win, are we gonna split it or keep it?” She asked.

Paul shrugged. “Well if I win we can split it, I wouldn’t know what else to use it for.”

“How much is it?” Emma asked instead, evading his nice comment. He was already trying to get on her good side, hoping being here wouldn’t bring up any bad memories from last time. 

“Well there are twenty four of us, so I think it’s something like two grande,” he lowered his voice right down as they walked into the lobby. Paul had made sure to come early so there weren’t many people here yet. 

“Two grande? Well damn. In that case I’d keep it and I’d use it to buy Beanies new tables so Zoey doesn’t get us in mortal table-related danger again,” she glanced up at Paul, hoping he would see how reasonable her request was. “Oh, but yeah. I’d buy you something nice too though,” she promised. “I’m not gonna kill you this time,” she added in helpfully. “Even if we’re on different teams.”

“Oh, you aren’t?” He tried not to be too obvious about how relieving that was. “Why?”

“Nora and Zoey. That’s the real competition I’m going for,” she tapped a finger to her head. “Plus, the best revenge is to win? So.”

The only people who had arrived so far were Mr Davidson and his wife, Melissa and Mcnamara with not just Schaeffer, but another officer who he didn’t recognise. 

Melissa hopped up from her seat, skipping up to Paul with a grin that said she had done something very bad. “You’re late, Paul.”

“Late? I’m on time, aren’t I?” 

“Well apparently if we wanted to be early we should’ve arrived before Melissa,” Colonel Schaeffer clicked her tongue. “She told the workers we were in no need of a demonstration.” 

“Well we aren’t,” Mcnamara said. “We know what we’re doing.” 

“Well. Most of us,” Mr Davidson seemed to like what Melissa had done. 

“She’s sabotaged the game!” McNamara’s friend laughed. “You were right, Schaeff. I like this girl.” 

“It’s a good thing we know what we’re doing then,” Carol combed her dark hair back behind her ear. “I’m sure people can figure it out as they go. It’s no harm really is it?” 

“What would you all do with two grande?” Mcnamara asked the group as Paul and Emma found a seat in the corner after tucking away their bags. 

“I’d buy new boots,” Schaeffer nodded.

“Two grande boots?” The mystery soldier asked.

“Oh,” Schaeffer paused. “Well what would you buy then Xander if you’re so smart?”

“I’d save it. I’m investing in something very expensive right now!” He shrugged like it was simple. 

“It’s a computer,” Mcnamara revealed. “Just a fancy computer. And I think PEIP covers both of those things.”

“I’d buy another cat tree,” Melissa answered.

“Don’t you already have enough cat trees?” She had two. Paul very vividly remembered that fact because he for one thought it was a bit of a waste of money. 

“Don’t you already have enough money?” Emma added, a little quieter, but just as confused. If someone even slightly comfortable with their money won she would lose her mind. 

“Oh well,” Mr Davidson sighed contently. “It’s about the fun, not the money!” 

He had been like that all week. All about ‘the fun’ and ‘the experience.’ Paul didn’t understand how much of an experience sitting on the out bench was really. 

“I think I could totally win this time!” Melissa piped up. “As long as someone doesn’t take my gun off me again!” She shot a glare at Schaeffer. 

“You have no clue how to use one of those things,” the colonel looked the other way, crossing her arms. “Look, I’ll choose you first this time, okay?”

“Yes!” Melissa yipped, vindicated. “I’d think so!” 

“However I will win this time. I’m done trusting people. No one is going to get the better of me.”

“Oh, Claire. Don’t say that sort of thing,” Carol looked at her with round eyes, leaning over the edge of her couch to get a couple inches closer. 

“Yes, don’t take this too seriously!” Mr Davidson agreed. “Just have some fun,” he squeezed Carol’s hand. 

“Well I’ve been planning all week,” Schaeffer crosses her arms.

“They both have,” Xander confirmed. “I don’t get what the big deal is. It’s just a game, right?” 

“Not at all, not anymore,” Emma announced. “I’d gladly take out any of you if we end up on opposite teams.” She crossed one leg over the other. “And that’s a threat.” 

“Well, this time I have a better plan-“ Schaeffer was interrupted by a surprised gasp from her friend as the doors opened, and the rest of the more on time players arrived. 

“Hi!” Melissa chirped, her eyes lighting up at the sight of her other friends, Paul thought. But Melissa hopped up to run at Doug instead, the officer who Paul wasn’t sure if she was just crushing on or actually dating from the way she talked about them. 

The players poured into the lobby, pushing Paul and Emma back into a corner until they were let into the prep room and provided with their visors and guns.

“There’s a lot of people here,” Paul pulled at his collar, feeling a bit starved of air. “I wonder if that means the game is longer or shorter?” 

Emma shrugged. “Don’t make me do math when my head is in a violent state. Don’t get in my way today.”

“Ominous,” Paul pursed his lips shut. “Hey, is that a child?” He nudged Emma’s shoulder tilting his head towards where Mr Davidson now seemed to be communing with someone. 

It must’ve been one of Alice’s friends, but clinging to her side was a proper child. She couldn’t be older than twelve. 

“Oh. I’m not shooting a child.”

“Me neither,” Paul shook his head, placing a hand on Emma’s back to guide her through the crowd so she wouldn’t get caught up amongst all the tall people. He wanted to listen in, and he bet she did too.

“I couldn’t leave her at home, she doesn’t want to play, she just wants to watch,” the older girl was explaining. 

“That’s fine, I don’t see why not. But she’s a little young to be on her own isn’t she?” Mr Davidson tilted his head. 

“Hannah will be fine to sit on her own, won’t you, banana?” She turned to the smaller girl who didn’t quite answer. “I was just thinking we could leave one of the radios here with her, I’ve seen a few going around.”

“That’s a good idea but in the fairness of the game if she’s a spectator she could just tell you where everyone was,” he pointed out.

“Oh, she’s actually not a talker,” the girl was quick to protest. “If she started telling me where everyone was I’d be a lot more surprised about that than anything else.”

Mr Davidson went wide eyed with surprise. “Oh, well I mean in that case. I suppose I can let it slip if she’s fine with it.”

“Oh,” Emma let out a sigh of relief. “Man. I would shoot anyone in this room but not a twelve year old.”

“Would you shoot Alice?” He inquired. “She’s too good a kid.”

“Yes but she’s also big competition. Emma Perkins follows no moral code when it comes to paintball!” She pressed her slightly-too-big visor back up her nose as she glanced up at Paul. 

“Except the one about shooting children?”

“Oh yeah, of course.”  
———————————————————

On one hand, Ethan didn’t know half the people here, making it a lot easier to shoot without remorse. On the other hand, he would probably shoot the people he did know too. Danny was literally asking for it, showing up to this place like Sof wasn’t already set out to destroy him. 

He didn’t know the man who seemed to be in charge, but it was nice of him to organise the whole thing and pay for it too. Maybe he’d give him a fighting chance, but Ethan had already faced the facts - he would win. He bet half the adults here didn’t even know how to use the guns. Apparently the skipped the tutorial. Although Lex didn’t know how to use one either.

“What’ll you do with the money if you win?” He asked Lex 

“Half of it goes to Cali, half of it’ll go to spendings or savings. It’s nice to not be so tight on money,” she shrugged. “Same for you?”

“Yeah. Maybe some car repairs?” He suggested. “What about you guys?” 

“Pot?” Danny asked like the real question was on how that wasn’t everyone else’s priorities.

“I’m gonna save it up for a car,” Deb answered. 

“Video games,” Alice, next in the circle, continued. “Or a new laptop.”

Everyone turned to Sof who was next in line but she just squinted. “Bro, you think I’m gonna win? I’m literally just in it to beat the shit out of you guys.” She stopped to think. “But yeah. Moving out.” 

“Alright. Shall we start picking teams?” The organiser, who he was pretty sure at this rate was called Ken, raised his voice. “We’re going to need three. Red, Green and Blue.”

No one really seemed to take action except a natural parting of paths to let two people move through, but then Ethan stuck his hand up. “Can I be a team captain?” 

Everyone turned to look at him. 

“I wanna be a leader too then!” Danny shoved him, making a run to the centre of the room to see if he could get there first.

Ken awkwardly cleared his throat. “Well, I guess I don’t see why not. Let’s mix it up a bit.” 

“I wanna be a team leader!” Someone else stuck their hand up, a laugh attached to their words that earned an elbow from the friends around them. 

“Well it seems we’ve been demoted, Schaeffer,” the two people who had stepped to the front took a step back from the situation, and Ethan made his way to the centre of a room full of adults he didn’t know.

“You can pick seven members each, why don’t you go first, son?” Ken gave Ethan first pick. 

Well maybe he didn’t think so far ahead, he didn’t know anyone. He wanted his friends, but what was the fun if he couldn’t shoot them? Ever bold, Lex had actually already made her way forward before he even said her name though. “I’ll take Bill,” he said, just to spite all his friends. Alice’s dad was pretty cool anyways too. 

“Dumb choice - I’m taking Alice then,” Danny called her over next. Probably because he couldn’t justify a way to shoot her in the same way he could Sof. Ethan still swore at him for it anyways.

“I’ll take the colonel?” the other team leader picked, quite confused as to why no one else had chosen her. It was one of the cops that was always bothering him and his friends. 

“Sorry, Colonel? As in the military?” Ethan watched the woman step forward. She was certainly built like she was from the military. 

“Thank you, Doug,” she sighed, holding one hand to one ear just in time to block out an annoying squeak of frustration. Ethan sought out the sound in the crowd and it belonged to a very upset looking girl who he almost thought was Alice for a second. He decided he would not pick that girl.

“Yikes. Sorry. Too late to return Bill now,” Lex apologised despite still not being picked by him. She nudged him in the direction of the man who had stepped up to be team leader beforehand, Ethan selected him next. 

“Good choice, son,” the man grunted as he stepped forward. “General Mcnamara,” he introduced himself. 

Ethan high fived Lex triumphantly. A nice score.

“Yeah, I want Lex too,” Danny gave a triumphant laugh of his own.

“Oh,” Ethan and Lex were no longer laughing and she had to leave his side. “You make shitty choices, Ethan.”

“Okay. We’ll take you now Melissa,” Doug beckoned over the girl who seemed to have been the source of that annoying noise from earlier. 

“Thank you!” She beamed with her crooked smile, bouncing up and down on the tips of her toes. 

Ethan had to consider it now. He could take Deb or Sof, but he wanted to eliminate both of them himself, so he had to think.

“Oh nice one babe. Bet it would’ve been really helpful if you knew who everyone was before you became team leader,” Lex snorted, and Danny gave him a jeering look too

“I’ll take Sam,” he said actually. He knew that cop, even if he was the worst of the bunch he probably had a good shot. 

“Well you are organising quite the shit team, Ethan my friend,” Danny slapped him on the back when the cop walked over, rolling his eyes. “I’ll take Deb’s aunt.” 

“And I’ll take Deb,” Doug said.

“Yes, what are you doing?” Mcnamara started from behind him. “If you want to pick a good team member, get Xander.” 

Ethan was thankful for the advice though, he didn’t actually know many other people’s names and he didn't want to prove Lex’s point. “Yeah, Xander.”

“Oh we’re all getting cops?” Danny seemed to be having the same problem with names, and just called over the final officer of the bunch, Rob. At least Rob seemed too busy spitting betting insults at his friends on the other team to recognise him. 

There was a pause now, and he figured that meant the good ones must’ve been thinned from the crowd now. “Ted,” Doug selected hesitantly. 

Ethan was out of names now, and the scolding looks from Sof certainly weren’t helping her case. So he went with the only other name he had picked up on, Ken. Who was sitting in the back besides his wife rather absently, like he hadn’t planned on being picked. 

“Mr Davidson, to you actually,” he corrected him as he joined the team, a woman attached at his hand. “And this is my wife Carol. She’s coming with me.” Maybe that was a good thing, he didn’t know any other names at this rate. 

Danny had to pick two now as well, and he seemed to struggle on it for a moment. “That guy,” he pointed at Paul, Ethan only knew him through Alice. “And the girl back there.”

“Huh, me?” The girl he had pointed at held a hand to her chest. 

“Yeah, her?” Paul echoed. 

“Yeah,” Danny confirmed. 

“Ugh, no!” They both complained. “Oh you’re kidding!” Paul groaned. “What was even the point!” 

“What’s your name?” Danny asked, completely ignoring their complaints. 

“It’s Amelia,” she groaned too, giving a very unenthusiastic handshake. “And this is Paul.”

Doug was getting thoughtful now that there were only five more players. “Charlotte,” they tapped their chin. “And Zoey.”

Well there were only three up against the wall now. One of them was an elderly man and one of them was Sof, so it was very much the illusion of choice as he chose the last girl there.

The woman who came forth was one of the better off of the bunch at this rate, and Sof  
was still scowling at him for not being picked, which he was trying to avoid. 

“This shit is ridiculous,” the girl huffed. “And my name is Emma.” 

He scoffed. “That’s a big attitude for someone who was picked last!” Adult or not, he wasn’t frightened of her. She was about five foot tall and that basically eliminated her as a valid threat. 

“You,” Danny selected the older man. 

“Hey, no shit. That’s your great uncle isn’t he?” Lex tilted her head at the man coming through the thinning crowd who gave him a polite wave as he passed. 

“Oh boy,” he muttered. He couldn’t tell when he was wearing that visor. He just hoped it wasn’t, that would make things sort of weird. 

“Hey, fuck you man,” Sof scoffed as she trudged over to the opposing team, her friends laughing at her as she went. 

“We’re gonna be the blue team,” Ethan decided as the representative leader, picking up a bandana to tie around his neck. 

“Nice cowboy look,” Lex teased, picking up a red bandana and taking off to the rest of her team.

“You should’ve picked red. Blue sucks,” Emma complained for the sake of starting problems. “Red team always wins.”

“Oh Emma, this isn’t about winning it’s about fun!” Mr Davidson calmed her as he tied on Carol’s bandana like he was helping her with a necklace. “It doesn’t matter who wins as long as we all enjoy ourselves.”

“That’s loser talk, sir, no offence,” Ethan quipped. “I have a foolproof plan to victory,” he told them all confidently, striking a hand to his chest with a grin. 

The General scoffed below his breath. “With this team?” 

“Do you have a problem with these fine fellows?” He gestured to his ragtag team. “And actually, because I’m in charge I think you have to call me General now.” 

“No I don’t. This isn’t how it works,” Mcnamara looked like he was about to plunge into a lecture about authenticity and hard work but he was cut off by a very blaring shout from Emma as she took off on her own. 

“You’re gonna lose, man!” She snatched up one of the last few radios. “Want the last one?”

“As General I believe I’m entitled to one, it’s my responsibility,” he plucked the last one from the bench, attaching it to his belt.

Xander shot Mcnamara a look. “Well you can be Lieutenant General again, John,” he shoved his hands into his pockets. “Can’t get too full of yourself.”

“Alright, and you can be a cadet,” Mcnamara retorted with a roll of his head as he power walked on ahead in retaliation. 

“Hey! Wait!” Xander cackled, racing after him. 

The siren had started and they only had five minutes to get to the other side of the field and plan. 

He was about to race them when Mcnamara grabbed his shoulder. “No offence son, but you picked a shitty god damn team. This isn’t some high school game of dodgeball, it’s serious. And you’ve just put us at a big disadvantage.” 

“Sir, don’t even worry about it. Look. I have a genius idea,” he stressed, already taking in the scenery as they walked so he wouldn’t get lost. “I’d like to see you and your cadets or whatever come up with something like this. Fresh brain!” 

Mcnamara crossed his arm, sharing an unsure glance with Xander. 

But they all followed him anyways until he found a wide enough clearing to settle everyone down. “Guys!” He called to get their attention. “I have a plan, there’s no need to worry.”

“Okay, let’s hear it, Ethan,” Bill encouraged him.

“Okay, okay, okay,” he quieted everyone down. “Well clearly to take down the other team we have to take out the colonel girl. She’s gonna have the most experience shooting,” he started, earning a slow and hesitant round of understanding nods. He didn’t want to give any attention to Danny’s team right now, because he wanted to take out Danny.

“Oh, well to do that-“ Mcnamara spoke up but he quickly stopped him, holding up a finger. 

“I’m the General here, okay?” But he had already lost the attention of some team members. “No, no, my plan to take out the colonel-” 

“You don’t want my actual insight into what might help take her down?” Mcnamara tried, frustrated he was being shut down so early. “And I have a very good idea!” 

“No!” He snapped, silencing everyone. “Just listen to my idea, okay?” He cleared his  
throat, surveying his team for any lack of compliance before speaking. “Let’s storm Schaeffer, she can’t shoot all of us at once.” 

“That’s your plan?” Mcnamara met his order with a stifled gasp. “Son. We’re going to be absolutely destroyed.” 

“Yes, that was a lovely speech Ethan,” Bill comforted him. “But if this game is anything like the last, Schaeffer won’t show up until the very end. Why not try then?” He offered him a gentle smile before hurrying off. 

“Yes, we have plans too,” Carol giggled playfully, nudging Mr Davidson. “But good luck!” They had some sort of unspoken conversation with their eyes, leaving after the others. 

“Yeah, sorry kid. Real nice of you though! But John and I are gonna go look for some of the guys on the other team, you want in?” Xander invited him. 

Ethan shook her head, shooing them off.

“All talk, huh?” Emma was the only one still hanging around though.

“What? Kicking me when I’m down huh?” Ethan chuckled to play it cool, but he had wished his team had listened. “Why’re you still here?”

“Well, I was just curious to hear what my General had to say. But since the plan is off I was gonna go find my boss and then my-“ she was stuck on the word. “My dad?” She answered like that was just the easier alternative. “That’s my plan.”

“Your dad?” He scanned through the members of the opposite team he had seen, there was no one remotely old enough to be her father, she had to be about thirty at most and more than half the other team was made of girls. “Wait- Henry?” 

“Yeah, sure, him,” she nodded. “What’s your plan?”

“He’s not your dad,” Ethan scoffed. “Huh?”

Something about her grew more defensive in nature as she spread her stance now. “Who’re you to say that?” 

“Uh well he’s my uncle, and I know for a fact he doesn’t have kids. I’d know if he did.”

“Hah,” Emma scoffed coldly. “Well that’s your problem. And I’m gonna go find him and take him out. You still gonna go storm the colonel?”

He shrugged his shoulders to readjust his safety vest with a huff. “No, I have a better plan now actually.” 

“Came up with that one fast,” she let out a breath of air past her lips in a loud exhale. “What?”

“I’m gonna pick off the competition.”

Emma gave an exaggerated nod. “So you’re gonna play the game is what you’re saying, my cousin?”

“Oh shut it. We aren’t related.”

——————————————————-------------------------------------------------

“Okay kid, what’s your plan?” Rob asked Danny, the self-titled ‘team leader.’

“Wait, I gotta think shit up?” He seemed floored already. “Man, I was just gonna leg it. My friends are probably already on their way to destroy me. I was just gonna hide with Alice and Lex.”

“Briefly,” Alice warned. “I just want to get a sense of things.” She rocked back and forth on her feet. “Staying still is a really bad idea though so we’re gonna go!”  
She gestured with her gun, leading Danny and Lex off. 

“Oh,” Rob turned to the rest of the team. So he was really just going to string together an awful team and leave it like that. “Well. I’m gonna go look for my friends,” he shrugged. 

“It seems we’ve got an every man for himself situation here,” Nora dipped her head. “I’ve got some girls to teach a lesson,” she at least waved goodbye before marching off.

“Paul?” Hidgens tilted his head. “What’s your action plan?”

“Ooh yes Paul. Let’s hear it,” Amelia cooed. “What’s your big idea?”

He hated being put on the spot. “Well,” he began, hoping he could buy himself some time with an exaggerated clearing of his throat. 

“Well good luck with that, son. I’ve prepared myself an action plan. No one gets past me!” He held up a finger for dramatic effect before racing out.

“Oh,” Amelia said.

“Oh,” Paul said.

They stared at each other.

“Well I’m going this way,” they both pointed the same way.

“Hey!” Paul barked. “I was going that way first, don’t follow me!” He walked faster to get the lead, not wanting to back down from her.

“I’m not following you. Not everything revolves around you. I’m just also going this way,” Amelia rolled her eyes.

What was quite clear to everyone else though was the fact that they were indeed both following each other.

\-----------------------------------------------------

“Alright, green team. I have a plan,” Doug knelt down on the floor, the group circled around them. “And it's for the good of the team, okay?” 

“Why is it green?” Schaeffer mused out loud. “It’s not a primary colour. It should’ve been yellow, technically.” 

Everyone spared her a glance before deciding to ignore that.

“That‘s not comforting,” Deb shook her head, bringing it back to the topic. “What’s your plan?” 

“Storm Mcnamara. He can’t shoot all of us at once.”

“That would absolutely not work,” Schaeffer disagreed. 

“I mean they’re right!” Sof stood up. “He only has one gun. And he’s our biggest competition. I am gonna go get Danny though.” She cocked her gun. 

“We can’t stay in a group,” Schaeffer pointed out. “We stand a better chance splitting up.”

“Well, anyone who wants to play it solo can head off on their own, but I’m gonna go take out Sam and Mcnamara, and I’ll offer up protection to anyone who wants to come with me,” Doug glanced around the group again.

“Legal protection or game protection?” Sof asked. 

Doug shot her a serious look, pulling down their visor like they were still wearing their shades. “Game protection.”

“Oh,” Charlotte fiddled with her fingers, “I’d like to come with you if that’s okay Doug.”

“Oh! Me too!” Melissa piped up. “It sounds fun!” 

“I thought you were coming with me, Melissa?” Schaeffer interrupted with a tone of distaste. “You seem pretty eager to get away from me, scared?”

“That isn’t what she’s so eager about,” Ted gave a toothed grin. 

“I’m not scared,” she spoke up for herself. “That’s why I’m going with Doug to go take out Mcnamara!” She exclaimed.

“Well, I’m going to go take shelter until things aren’t as hectic,” Schaeffer crossed the circle to place one of the four radios in Melissa’s palm. “You call me on this when numbers are getting small, okay?”

“What about when the teams fuse?” Melissa scrambled to attach it to her belt, surprised her friend was leaving already. 

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Just do whatever it was you did last time, and I’ll see you in the finale for a fair game this time,” Schaeffer gave her a firm pat on the shoulder before marching off. 

“So the rest of you?” Doug surveyed the remaining team.

Zoey nodded. “Until I find Emma, I’ll follow you. As long as Ted stops being a creep.”

And with that, the group dispersed.  
———————————————————

“You know Danny already knows we’re coming!” Deb tried to warn Sof as they both pelted down the middle of the course.

“That’s why we have to move fast!” Sof called over her shoulder, paintball gun raised and ready. “I wanna beat Lex! She’s probably getting Hannah to watch the cameras or something! She had a radio!”

Technically, at the speed they were going there was no problem running into anyone else like last time. In Deb’s own opinion, these adults all took the game too slowly. 

“Once we get him let’s book it right back to home base!” She instructed, firing a trigger happy shot into the air out of glee. Deb didn’t think she had ever done anything like this before, it didn’t seem like the sort of thing her mother would give her the money to do.

“Don’t waste your ammo! You only have so many shots!” She reminded her, trying to take in deep enough breaths so she didn’t start panting. She had been one of the first people out past time and she didn’t want to make that mistake again. Neither could she be too trusting or protective of anyone on her team. 

Sof took risks like it was her job, and that was not the sort of person she wanted to go up against if it came to it. 

“Where do you think he’s hiding?” Sof asked, throwing her gun up onto one of the raised platforms so she could use both her hands to haul herself up, not quite being tall enough to do it herself. “I’m gonna see if I can see him from up here.” 

“Hey, I’m gonna go this way okay?” Deb pointed down the opposite path as Sof swung one leg up, grunting. She wasn’t going to stay still while Sof took in a scenic view. 

But she had only just cut the corner when she heard Sof scream proper bloody murder. On any other day she would’ve dropped everything to go see if she needed rescuing but she had her wits about her today. 

Sof’s screams mixed in with Danny’s triumphant laughter, and Deb couldn’t help but laugh herself, snickering into her arm to keep quiet. He must’ve known they were coming.

He had yanked her right off the platform before she could even get up, one arm locking her in a choke hold. “You thought! You thought, Sof!” He laughed, allowing her to struggle for a bit considering she had no weapon to fight back with. She couldn’t even elbow him effectively because of his tactical vest. “I totally called it! Stay winning!”

“Ow!” Sof spat as Danny finally fired his gun at close range into her back, knocking her to the ground. “Dude! You’ve literally just severed my spine, my legs are broken!” 

“They are not!” He scoffed, holding out a hand to help her up. “Don’t be a sore loser!”

Deb was just about to come out to take the shot when she heard footsteps ahead of her. She jumped back, gun raised, Alice was hiding on just the opposite wall to watch the fight too. She shot Deb a wide eyed, wide smile look. But she didn’t raise her gun but instead, one finger to her lips. 

But Danny had heard her jump, and kept his gun raised. “What was that?”

“It was Deb,” Sof brushed her knees off, snatching her gun back. “Who abandoned me in my moment of need!” She called a bit louder just to ensure Deb had heard. 

Danny took a cautious step forward and she stepped back, not ready to take on him and Alice at the same time but Alice hopped out instead, hands raised. “Don’t worry, Danny. It’s just me!”

“Oh, shit,” he let out a sigh of relief. “Firing these things is kinda shit, but don’t tell Deb I said that.” 

“Too late, Danny boy!” Deb finally hopped out from her hiding place behind the wall, taking in Alice’s important monologue lesson and cutting it short, shooting Danny as soon as Sof ducked out of the way. 

“Aww, Deb!” He spluttered, rooted to the ground as he wiped paint off his visor. 

“I love you so much, babe!” She shouted back over her shoulder to Alice as she sprinted off, the true victory of shooting Danny was making her heart soar, and she didn’t care about being loud.

“Woo! Hell yeah, you too babe!” Sof called back, clapping her hands together in a way that was somehow both sarcastic and genuine. Alice was too busy spewing apologies to reply. 

———————————————————

Alice had had fun last time, she really had. But she would’ve loved so much more for this game to be between her friends rather than twenty something adults with a death drive. 

Hell, she was up against police officers and the military, and she was just an eighteen year old girl whose safety vest barely fit! 

She just decided to stay close to the walls, she was sort of worried some of her dad’s friends would take it too seriously and knock her right off her feet.What she wasn’t expecting though was to be swept off them. 

In about three seconds she had been disarmed and stolen from the ground, a hand around her mouth and the other across her shoulders to keep her quiet as she was hauled up onto a platform, her gun straying across to the other side of the level and threatening to fall off. 

She let out a muffled shout, tearing her shoulder free and driving an elbow back at her attacker to try and free herself.

“Hey, hey! Shh, don’t be so loud, Alice,” the hand slowly lowered from her mouth.

“Ethan?” Her jaw dropped, and she didn’t hesitate to elbow him again. She was less threatened now and more just angry. “Don’t do that!” She should’ve known he’d be a bit too invested. He just had to shoot her and she would be out, but he was really putting on a whole act.

Ethan snickered, holding a finger to his lips to ask for her silence again. “I’m clearly holding you hostage, Ali cat,” he explained like it was rather obvious. “It’s my genius idea.”

“You aren’t just gonna shoot me yourself?” She tried to stretch out to her gun, but she couldn’t grab it from where Ethan was holding her. 

He shook his head. “No, duh. Deb said in the car that you won last time. So I’m gonna lure in other players and shoot them before they shoot me.”

Her friend was dumb. 

“This is a game of paintball, Ethan. No one is taking it seriously.”

“There is a two grande prize though,” he reminded her quite frantically. “You could do a lot with two grande, Alice.” He knew she wouldn’t get the importance for him, maybe just enough for him to possibly perhaps just convince her to give in to give him a better chance though. 

Not that he could do math, but he assumed he and Lex were going to pool it into the same funds, and that gave him double the chance of everyone else, and with Danny and Sof already out, that mystery percentage was getting bigger, and once Alice was out it would get bigger. She won last time too, so she was probably a big chunk on the pie chart of immediate threats. 

“I will scream,” she stated. 

“Don’t,” he hadn’t accounted for that. “No, be quiet. You’re my friend, right? Just, let me at least take someone out before you start-” he paused.

He had just heard a noise, somewhere on the ground below them. He leant backwards into the foliage, really hoping Alice wasn’t going to start yelling. It was probably for her own benefit too that she kept silent. 

“Found you!” Came Lex’s voice, looking right up at him with her gun aimed and a shit eating grin on her face. And they hadn’t even made any noise! How did she know!

“Hey,” he raised his hands up, holding his breath. “If you shoot me you are twice as less likely to get that prize money,” he tried to warn her. “Also you’re holding the gun wrong,” he reminded her. 

“Oh!” She fixed her grip as she licked her lips, her gun staying on him. “I’ll give you a ten second head start,” she granted. “Alice, come with me,” she jerked her thumb over her shoulder in an order for Alice to get behind her but she still hadn’t retrieved her gun and without it she was practically useless. 

He was semi aware of her stretching out behind him to try and grab it, and he was trying not to trod on her hands as he stumbled back. “Babe.”

“Nine,” she warned.

“Cut it out, you’re kidding.”

She clicked her tongue, nodding her head. “Eight,” she continued. “Seven.”

“Lex, I’m serious. If you eliminate me I can’t help you,” he of course wasn’t going to shoot his girlfriend. He actually wanted to heighten his chances. 

“Better start running then!” she shrugged. “Four!”

“Shit!” He laughed, hopping over Alice to jump down on the other side of the platform if Lex was actually going to shoot him.

“Two!”

“Ethan!” Alice grunted, actively trying not to be thwacked in the head by the swinging of his arms. 

“One and a half,” Lex’s tone lilted, stretching her back to get a better shot.

“Okay!” He fumbled with his gun, leaping down from the platform so at least a wall separated them.

He could still hear both of the girls shouting after him, and the very distinctive sound of Lex’s combat boots hopping up on the platform. He fired a blind shot up, hurrying forward to escape Lex’s range. 

“Ethan!” Someone shouted his name and he whipped around to fire at them before they could fire first, but to his horror but also relief, as he turned around he had not shot Lex but Alice.

“I’m gonna get you for that, buddy!” Lex was bolting after him now, only stopping briefly to ensure Alice wasn’t actually hurt, thank god. At least she seemed sort of relieved to be out of the game. Hopefully she wasn’t mad at him but he couldn’t worry about that right now as Lex fired a shot that only barely missed. 

He swerved the corner as tightly as he could to gain a few extra seconds on her, running in bounds and hoping his longer legs would give him a hand here. 

“Hey!” Someone else was hissing at him now, he almost missed it over the sound of his boots skidding over the dirt. 

That girl he had picked for his team - Emma, was standing at the end of the corridor, gesturing him over frantically. 

He veered paths, almost crashing into her. She grabbed his shoulder and pulled him down underneath one of the lower platform steps, ducking down right underneath.

He watched just in time as Lex sprinted right by them, still calling out to him.

“Oh my god! I can’t believe she was actually gonna shoot me!” Well if he won now that two grande was going into his california road trip snacks, not hers! 

Emma scoffed, shaking her head. “You can’t trust anyone in this game. Trust me kid. How’s picking off the competition going?” 

“It’s going just fine,” he lied. “Why’re you hiding under there?” She fit quite nicely under the gap but he was sort of cramped. He crawled out now that the scene was clear.

“Yep. I’m gonna wait it out. That’s what all the big competition does, if anyone passes by I can just shoot them!” She wiped her hands off on her jeans as she squeezed out. “Take it as advice from your big sister slash cousin,” she joked.

“We aren’t related,” he reminded her. His uncle did not have children, he was almost a hundred percent sure. He didn’t know why she kept saying that. “Thanks for saving my ass though. Lex runs quick.”

She dipped her head up. “It’s nothing. I’ve gotta go find another hiding spot now though. So don’t follow me,” she gave him a thumbs up, hurrying off. “See ya, cuz!”

“We aren’t cousins!” He shouted out after her. “Why do you keep saying that!?” But she was long gone now. “Great.” Now he was on his own again. 

“Fancy seeing you here,” came a voice from right behind him as a hand slapped down on his shoulder. Before he could even turn around he was shot. Even through the safety vest he still felt the grunt of it. “You aren’t supposed to monologue in this game, and you aren’t supposed to stand about either.”

He recognised the voice unfortunately before he even turned around. “Uncle Henry?” So it was him. You really couldn’t trust anyone in this game. Not even blood. 

His Uncle gave him a polite wave. “Sorry to ruin the fun, boy. But I have to run now, I have to go kick my child’s ass.” He took off rather fast for a man in his sixties.

“Huh,” Ethan snatched off his bandana, chances wasted. Apparently they were cousins. Maybe he should’ve stayed under there with her.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Nora had considered what to do with the prize money if she won. It would just be small things like paying rent or paying back business school or maybe upgrading a few of the machines around her store, but she knew she probably didn't have much of a chance and she was fine with that. It was for the younger kids and she didn’t want to ruin their fun by going ballistic on anyone over two thousand dollars. It wasn’t like she was really struggling.

What she was really here for was to perhaps, maybe just, release a little bit of pent up frustration with her employees, which was exactly why she was searching for them in the first place. 

It wasn’t even like she was really angry, she just needed to remind them both that she was literally the boss of this trio.

And lucky for her, she had found the both of them in the same spot in a bit of a western shootout it seemed, frozen in the headlights of each other’s range at either end of the open clearing. 

Zoey had clearly walked in on Emma, and it looked to be a case of knowing that even the slightest movement would warrant a fight to break out. Nora was very used to this type of competition between the two though. 

She figured it wasn’t clever to stay standing out in the open too long, her employees were really god damn dumb sometimes. Which is why she revealed herself quickly, she wasn’t letting someone else take her shot. “Girls!” She greeted rather energetically.

Zoey’s paintball gun dropped down by her side, staring at Nora with wide eyes like she had just been caught on her phone at work, but Emma, ever the expert at not really listening, took the shot while Zoey wasn’t prepared, hitting her square in the front of her vest. 

“Ugh, Nora!” Zoey grabbed a hand to her vest, complaining more to her than at her. “Emma!”

“Nora?” Emma whipped around, gun still in hand as she did. She had only seemed to notice she was there right then. “Shit!”

The look on her face was quite worth the two grande when she realised. Nora fired the shot while Emma was battling with the idea of whether or not she could shoot her boss.

Emma seemed to barely miss it, stumbling back against the wall where she was just easy prey. Nora got a clean shot to the marks on her vest, and she let out an exasperated shout. 

“Nora!” She dropped her gun down onto the ground but Nora couldn’t tell whether she was going to throw a tantrum or a punch. 

“I caught her trying to hide up on the platform,” Zoey declared proudly, holding a hand awkwardly over the splash of paint on her vest. 

“I caught you coming down the path actually,” Emma grunted, trying to get flicks of paint off her skin. 

Nora pointed over her shoulder, sparing a glance too for safety. “Doesn’t matter who started it, you’re both out, girls.” 

Zoey hunched her shoulders, waiting for Emma to trudge over to her so they could both walk back to the waiting room together. 

Suddenly Emma let out a gasp, grabbing Zoey’s shoulder to yank her out of the way just as a ball of blue paint rocketed by. 

“Hey, I’m already out, asshole!” Zoey snapped at her attacker, leaning into Emma and grasping at her shoulder, Emma held her back. Nora already knew exactly who it was. 

“Get off the field then, Zo!” 

Nora had her gun ready as she craned her neck around the two girls to see who had fired, cocking her gun before Sam could even realise she was there. “Oh I’ve been waiting for this.” 

She caught the officer by surprise as she pushed by Emma and Zoey, but he caught her by surprise by being a lot closer than she thought he was, not that she felt bad shooting him at almost point blank.

“What-!” He spluttered, yanking his visor off, his other hand still on the trigger of his gun. “Hey!”

“Oh, sorry, officer. Total accident,” she delivered her apology in customer service voice. That man had done more harm than good to Zoey. “You aren’t hurt are you?”

Zoey peered out from behind Nora with a scowl. “You’re a big strong man aren’t you? You aren’t complaining?”

Emma stepped out on her other side. “Get off the field now!”

The man was still stammering, trying to come up with some sort of excuse about why he failed or why she wasn’t allowed to do that. 

“Go!” Zoey barked, it was now unspoken that they’d wait for him to leave before walking off themselves. “You’re a dick sometimes, Sam.”

“Hey, it's two grand! Someone had to take you out!” He tried to justify himself. “How was I supposed to know you were already out?”

“Uh!” Zoey gestured to the paint all over her vest. “With your eyes!?” 

He scoffed, rolling his eyes at her. “Don’t be dramatic, god! The gang is gonna give me so much shit when they found out the fucking coffee girl got me,” he grunted the last part to himself. 

“You’re out, Sam,” Nora tried not to growl, watching him storm away. 

“Do I have permission to spit in his coffee next time?” Zoey whispered to her. 

Emma leant in to her other side. “I was gonna do it regardless,” she did not whisper. “Can I though?”

She crossed her arms, glaring at the space Sam was a moment ago. “I’m legally obligated to say you can’t.” She nudged Emma though to thank her for not asking permission. “Go on. You have to get off the field or you’ll get your team penalised.”

Zoey gave him a dramatic sigh. “Come on Emma. Let’s beat him back there.”

“I’m mad at Nora, but I’m more mad at Sam, so it cancels it out,” Emma was explaining to her coworker as they hurried away. 

With that out of her system though she watched them walk away fondly, only lingering for a second before she was about to leave. But it hadn’t even been a second before a paintball struck her in the back.

“Hey, Nora!” Deb called from behind her. 

She let out a relieved laugh. She had done what she needed to do in this game anyways, and at least her niece got her out - not her employees, or god forbid Sam. 

“I’ve just been back there, I was waiting for Sam to leave. I couldn’t eliminate you in front of that ass,” she shrugged, grinning like she had done her a favour.

Nora thwacked a hand to her shoulder. “Language,” she warned chidingly, slipping her gun into its holster and taking her bandana off so she wasn’t shot again on her way out. “Just-”

“Hey!” Came a holler as someone crashed down from behind them, having just leapt off from the above platforms, paintball gun firing. “That’s my boss!” Whoever it was had not made a clean landing but shot back up on their feet in a blur of blue and shot Deb before Nora could even realise it was Officer Rob. 

“Oh, hey dickhead I didn’t shoot him!” Deb groaned. “I was like halfway to winning,” Deb rubbed the paint off her paint. “God, that was so stupid.” She glanced up at where he had jumped down from. “It happens everytime, it’s paintball! Why’s everyone gotta start climbing shit- sorry, I mean stuff.”

“I shot Sam, actually,” Nora did want the credit for that. 

“It was a very good shot, I’m only mad because I wanted it.” He came forward to shake Nora’s hand which was sort of weird, but she appreciated good sportsmanship in a violent game like this. “Sorry, ladies.”

Nora patted Deb’s shoulder sympathetically, “alright, come on. Maybe we can still catch up with Zoey and Emma,” she was about to beckon her on to go because she didn’t want to hold up Rob, but then another perpetrator arrived at the scene. 

She heard the pounding of boots on the dirt before she saw Deb’s friend, she wasn’t actually holding her gun the right way but she had her eyes set on Rob before she even seemed to adjust to the corridor she was in, and despite how butchered her shot was she landed it just on his shoulder. 

“Woah!” He clutched a hand to the paint like it was blood. “Kid!”

“Boom, ACAB, baby!” She pumped a fist up into the air before rapidly coming back down to adjust the radio attached to her vest, covering it with a hand. “Anyways,” she backed up again, covering up the radio as a voice came through. “Fuck cops! Uh, Bye!”

\---------------------------------------------------  
\------

“Take this path, it’s harder for someone to sneak up on us,” Doug advised their team. “Melissa?” They turned to her to confirm she had heard.

“Yeah?” The girl tilted her head like she was unsure why she was being called out.

“Do you get it?” 

She nodded. “Yeah I get it!” 

“So you were paying attention?” 

A more frantic nod. “Yes! Yeah I heard it!” 

Doug didn’t really seem to be buying that for some reason, and grabbed onto Melissa’s arm to walk her through the path. “You look like you’re daydreaming.”

“I’m not, I’m paying attention!” She defended herself. “Why? Why do you say that?”

“Well, just do what I tell you okay?” They beckoned their group after them, with Ted taking the rear.

“Charlotte? Why don’t you walk up the front with me,” they called her up. “You can keep an eye forward.”

“Yes, Doug!” She complied happily, a smile coming to her face knowing she was being helpful. 

“Oh wow, Doug, that’s super brave of you to take the lead,” Melissa clutched her hands together, hurrying to keep up with Doug. Now they were all technically walking up the front, except for Ted.

“Thanks, Mel,” they grinned, but kept their eyes fixed on the path through the course. “I’ve got a good strategy on my hand.” 

“Uh, remember last time when-“

“I remember last time,” they confirmed. “I was distracted, but I won’t be distracted this time.” 

“No, about um,” she bit down on her lip, playing with her fingers. “You said that if we were on the same team...” she trailed off, watching Doug closely for any sort of reaction. “Y’know?” 

“That I would keep you safe? Well that’s what I’m doing aren’t I?” They shot her a glance, jerking their head to gesture for her to keep up. 

“Doug,” she whined, pulling at their arm. 

They snorted. “What do you want? We’re out in the field. You have to lower your voice.”

She locked her fingers together shyly, her voice dropping right down. “It’d be more fun if we went off on our own wouldn’t it? Just us?” 

Doug let out a laugh, raising a hand to signal Ted forward. “We’ll take up the rear, Ted.”

They slipped to the back, but Melissa wasn’t sure why, she tugged at their arm again. 

“Well how can I protect Charlotte and Ted if I don’t stick with the group?” Doug pointed out, allowing Melissa to cling to their arm as they walked. 

“Wait, so what you said last time about the human shield wasn’t even about me?” She dug her heels in. “Well that’s just mean, Doug!” 

“Well I didn’t know we were going to have a second round back then,” they chuckled. Doug glanced at Charlotte and Ted who were making some distance on them now considering they had to pull Melissa along. “I’m being a leader. Why don’t you go call up Schaeffer on the radio if you want to be in a smaller group?” They tried to suggest helpfully.

“Because I wanna hang out with you! She takes this game too seriously.” She balled up her fists, her face going red. “That’s why she’s off hiding, I just want to have fun and not bruise.”

“Shhhh. Don’t you think you should be holding onto your gun?” They snatched it off her belt, planting it into her palm. “You know how to use it, don’t you?” 

“Of course!”

They offered an apologetic look but didn’t take it back. “Well you did fire it at point blank last time. I think you did the colonel’s back in.”

She felt her skin grow hot, fiddling now with the gun instead of her hands. “I know how! I am paying attention, Doug!” 

“Keep your voice down!” They warned. “Be quiet, we’re going to lose the element of surprise if you keep whining,” they were attempting to tell her, but that sort of day-dreamy look was still in her eyes. They didn’t even know if she was listening.

“Whining?” Maybe she was whining. But maybe she didn’t intend to stop. 

“Doug!” She groaned. “This is a boring game! Let’s go-“ She barely had time to process the roll of Doug’s eyes before they grabbed her by the collar to push her up against the wall, hushing her. 

“There’s someone here,” they whispered, prepping their paintball gun and keeping Melissa behind them. 

Melissa looked down at the hand on her collar, chewing on her lip. 

“They must’ve heard you,” they glanced up ahead, but the other two were too far away. 

But it made Melissa giggle, she put up no resistance at all. “Oh yeah? Tell me more about it.” 

“You are totally shameless, Melissa. ” They leant in, “They’re coming for us now, for sure. You were way too loud.” They were starting to measure the best way out.

“Oh well,” she laughed, almost swaying her hips. “Let’s just let them get us, then we can just go hang out in the lobby!” she tried to lean up for a hug but Doug kept her to the wall. 

“No, I’ve got to lead this group,” they hushed her down. “I could probably get us out of here, you just have to be quiet so I can-“

“Doug!” She huffed, showing no signs of stopping. Matter of fact she didn’t want to play the game. She had no action plan, she didn’t even have anything she really wanted 2k to spend on. 

“Oh-!” Doug let out a quick and frustrated growl before grabbing the back of Melissa’s head to lean in for a kiss, just to quiet her down because they had figured out that was probably what she wanted.

Melissa grinned through the kiss, her hands curling tightly around her gun, stretching up onto the tips of her toes just to feel the joy all the way through her body. 

Doug pulled back. “Are you done complaining now? We have to be silent.” They let her go from the wall, jerking their gun in the direction they were supposed to be heading. “Come on, hun, and quietly now.” They took off in a hurry, expecting her to follow, but Melissa was paralysed, she was smiling so hard her cheeks hurt. 

“Oh, thank you, Doug!” She called out to be sure they heard, their brain too blurry to  
command their feet to move. Maybe she would stick around a little longer. She was just changing her mind when she felt something smack into the back of her spine, almost knocking her off her feet. She let out a yelp, more of surprise than pain but it still made Doug whip around. 

“Oh, oh my god. Melissa, I’m so sorry.” They held one hand to their mouth in surprise for a second.

“Uh!” She gasped, double checking to ensure her feet were still on the ground. She whipped around, only just catching a glance of Mr Davidson running away, laughing to himself before he was even out of earshot. “Mr Davidson!” She called back, but he was already gone. 

“Oh, Melissa. I thought you were following me.”

“Well no I wasn’t!” She groaned to herself, but it was a relief to be out of the game. She was more scared about telling Schaeffer. “But you should go, Doug! Before he comes back!”

“Oh I’m-” Doug gave an uncertain nod, “I’m really sorry.” giving Melissa one last frown before hurrying off to catch up with the group before Melissa could tell them to run again.

Melissa grumbled, pulling out her radio. “Schaeffer! I need to see you!” Well now she was definitely whining.

“What? Why?” The radio crackled. “Meet me back at the starting doors.” She supposed Schaeffer was trying to keep her hiding spot a secret but it didn’t matter now.

“Melissa, you’re kidding me.” Schaeffer stopped her dead in her tracks as they met, eyes wide with surprise. “Who shot you out? Give me names. I’ll handle it, tell me what the hell you’re doing covered in paint.” She grabbed Melissa’s shoulders, yanking her down to take cover behind a wooden platform. “You weren’t supposed to go out! We had a plan!”

“I got eliminated.”

“Yeah. I can tell. For what!?”

“Eliminated for simping,” she frowned, trying to search for sympathy in her friend’s cold eyes. 

“Simping? What the fuck is simping Melissa? I’m forty five. Do I look like I know what simping is?” She hissed, fortunately her eyes were too set on her surroundings to glare much more. 

“I don’t wanna tell you because then you’ll be mad at me,” she twirled a lock of hair around her fingers. “Mr Davidson got me out,” she answered. “He shot me while I wasn’t even looking.”

“Oh, Ken. I know Ken.” It was hard to tell what she was thinking. “I knew you were spacing out again, it’s in your eyes.”

“Huh?” She took her visor off. “Schaeffer, I’m not wearing my glasses! Is that why everyone thinks I’m zoning out?” Her jaw dropped. “I can’t see shit, Schaeffer!”

“Oh,” she winced. “Sometimes I forget people just have bad eyes. Why don’t you get that fixed properly? You’re only vulnerable if you don’t.” Then she held up a hand before Melissa could ramble again. “Ken is doing just fine without his glasses it would seem.”

“I just have worse eyesight! Schaeffer, I gotta go. I’m out so I can’t stay on the field,” she frowned. 

Schaeffer grunted as she stood back up, giving Melissa a hand. “Welp. It was good while it lasted. Looks like I have to find a new plan now.” 

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I just have to take a brief detour to go find Ken.”  
——————————————————-------

Deb, that bastard, had taken the winning shot. Danny was already out unfortunately which made the rest of the game more of a task than fun. 

Now, Lex liked to play fair and she didn’t think it was technically cheating if she wasn’t even asking for help. She couldn’t stop her sister from warning her of the danger anytime she got too close to anyone. That was Hannah’s personal decision. 

“Hey Han?” She asked quietly through the radio, holding a hand over the speaker to muffle the crackling that was a dead give away. “How’re you holding in?” Surely the sound the radios made balanced it out and made it fair anyways she told herself.

Her sister was quiet on the other end, which was what she expected really. But she kept the radio to her ear as she wandered around the maze. There just mustn't have been anyone nearby.

The crackle almost made her heart stop when she did hear something though. 

“Lexie, no,” Hannah mumbled, and Lex stopped dead in her tracks. “Someone’s coming.”

“Huh?” But just then, someone darted right past her, one of the adults with the shitty moustache just like Danny’s. He didn’t even notice her but they would’ve collided if she had kept walking. She kept a tighter hold on her gun, not ready to put it down again. “Oh, thanks, Han!” She kept her voice down this time, sneaking after that man for an easy shot. 

Well she didn’t like to say she was a cheater, but she couldn’t turn Hannah’s radio off could she? What if she needed help? The radio would just have to stay on. No one had to know. And when she won the money would go to a good place too.

“Oh!” Her train of thought was cut short though by a surprised shout from behind her as a paintball splattered into her back. 

“Oh shit!” She gasped, that kinda hurt. She turned around to find the criminal, certainly not expecting to see Alice’s dad.

“Oh shoot, I’m so sorry, are you alright?” He apologised, tucking his paintball gun back to his belt to come offer Lex a hand. 

Hannah hadn’t warned her about that one. 

“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s no big deal,” she brushed her hands down, taking her bandana off. God, there went her chances. 

“Oh I’m sorry. This is a bit of a stressful game, I’ve just been firing at everything that moves! I need to be more careful, do you need a hand to the lobby?” He offered, seeming genuinely apologetic. “Some of the people in this game are really frightening to play with,” he continued.

“Oh, no thanks Mister Lake, it’s fine.” She was kind of ticked, she really did want to win that money after all. But it was better to keep an eye on Hannah, she didn’t want her on her own as the lobby filled up with eliminated players and Ethan clearly hadn’t taken one for the team by getting eliminated! “I’ll just-”

“Hey Bill!” Came a sort of war cry, and she watched that man with the moustache come flying back around the corner before Bill could do anything. “Watch out!” The warning was very sarcastic, but Bill didn’t even seem to try and defend himself, he was just upset his friend had to be so obnoxious about his shot, and Lex was pissed too. 

“Hey, you don’t need to call yourself out!” Lex stomped a foot down for Bill, because she knew he wasn’t the type to stand up for himself. 

“Oh, it’s alright Lex,” he tucked his bandana into his vest pocket, trying not to get paint on his hands. “Be careful Ted, you could’ve hit Lex.”

“Isn’t that the point?” He scoffed, putting his hands on his hips as he already started to walk off. “You’re both out, clear the way or someone else will shoot you!” 

“Oh,” Bill frowned, taking Lex’s shoulder to guide her in the right direction. “Don’t let him get to you, sometimes Ted just has too much fun,” he sighed. “He wasn’t this enthusiastic back at work I’ll tell you that,” Bill shook his head.

“Yeah, crazy what it does to you when you have a gun in your hands, right?” She had been a bit carried away herself. Bill did not need to know that though. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. “Are you? Sorry, I really hope I didn’t hit from too close. I panicked,” he apologised again.

Lex brushed him off, already feeling herself cooling down as she pushed open the exit door. “It’s okay, Mister Lake. It was fun! Between you and me I’m glad it was you and not like, Ethan, or someone,” she laughed, parting ways to go search for her sister around the half full lobby. 

She spotted her friends sitting down in a circle in the corner - Deb and Alice and Sof and Danny and Ethan, and Hannah was there too. 

“Hey banana,” she started. “You didn’t warn me about this one,” she added as she slipped off her splattered vest.

“Oh hi!” Came a cheerful greeting. “Hey, is this your sister? Lex, right?”

Hannah was sitting on the floor besides an older girl, her fingers wrapped around a colourful piece of thread. “Look,” she held up her hands to show them to Lex.

“I’m teaching everyone how to play strings,” the girl nodded. “Do you want to play with us?” She offered. 

“Oh,” it came out oddly forced. “You didn’t wanna keep an eye on the kid Ethan?” She asked, gritting her teeth at her friends, surprised they were all fine with letting Hannah sit with a bigger group. She stood over Hannah, kneeling down. 

“I was but she was too distracted by the screens,” he pointed up at the cameras everyone else was watching. “She was watching you.”

“You were watching her too,” Alice nudged him.

Lex tucked away the radio she was still holding as inconspicuously as she could. “Oh yeah?”

“Hah!” Danny snorted, pointing a finger and knocking Sof in the process. 

Sof shoved him. “You’re ruining my turn!” She snapped, trying to take the strings from Hannah’s smaller hands. Hannah seemed to think it was all rather funny.

“It’s over and then under,” the mystery girl was explaining. “You wanna join in?” She asked Lex. “It gives your hands something to do and it's super boring in here. I can teach you.”

She shook her head, she felt like she was missing something. “Why aren’t you watching the screens?”

“Well… we’re all here,” Deb gestured at the gang around them. “Unless you wanna watch Alice’s uncle argue with that girl from Greenpeace.” 

“Screens are too crowded,” Sof also added, focusing very carefully on getting the strings onto her fingers.

Alice leant through the circle to take her turn, seeming to have a better grip on whatever game this was than the others as she took the strings from Sof in two smooth motions. “This is my dad’s coworker, by the way.” Alice finally introduced them.

“Yeah I’m Melissa,” she lifted a hand. “I only really know Emma and she wants to watch Paul so only Alice offered to play strings with me.”

“And then she bullied me and Ethan into playing,” Deb filled in for the rest of the story. “And Ethan thought Hannah might like it because it would give her something to fiddle with. I don’t know why Danny and Sof are here though,” Deb said as she slipped the strings off of Alice and onto her fingers, holding her hands out to Ethan. 

“Uh, because we can be!” Danny scoffed, driving a hand down on the strings to ruin the pattern she had created. 

“Hey!” Deb lunged at Danny, knocking him backwards as Sof clambered onto him just to join in the fun by pinning him to the ground. That did seem to be the breaking point for Hannah though as she hurried into Lex’s lap. 

Alice leant back with an amused laugh. “We should probably go find a camera to watch,” she reminded the group. 

“Oh, why?” Lex asked, running her fingers over Hannah’s braids. Who would they even watch for?”

Ethan slid in besides Lex, leaning his neck to the side to talk to her over the brawling Danny, Deb and Sof were commenced in. “Once the Green and Blue teams lose a member they’re going to merge teams,” he explained. “It should be starting soon. We’re gonna place bets.”  
\-------------------------------------------

Schaeffer was almost liking her new plan a bit more than her old one, honestly.

On one hand she could stay hidden until the finals and take the two grande which she would then apparently have nothing to spend it on, or on the other hand she could take revenge. 

A paintball gun was no tranq but she was kind of looking forward to it. 

She had to let it sink in that in the real world, she would not have separated herself from Melissa, and that Melissa probably wouldn’t be the enemy, and that if this was real she would not let Melissa get shot.

She perhaps had some history with her sister’s husband. She for one was not too fond of Ken unlike Carol. Aside from the fact he probably wasn’t powerful enough to defend Carol if anything ever happened to her but also the fact he just did not seem to believe in PEIP for the longest time and it had been a hassle always being pestered for her ‘real occupation.’ 

Well when she thought about it there were lots of reasons, and now she just had another to add to her list.

She had traced him from where Melissa had reported being shot, and unfortunately for him he wasn’t difficult to find. 

She had been trailing along behind him for a couple of minutes now and she could’ve shot at any time but she was savouring the moment. Carol couldn’t get her in trouble for it if it was all just a game. 

She froze a second before Ken did, having sighted his next victim clearly. 

A fool’s mistake.

She raised her gun, lining it up with a steady hand. She wasn’t cruel enough to aim for the back of the head but that was a very tempting offer when it came to Ken.

Her finger was on the trigger when she herself was shot, and she actually felt her heart leap as she clutched at it, dropping down to her knees before she remembered they weren’t playing with actual bullets. 

“Shit!” She held one hand to her jaw in an attempt to stop it clenching, turning around to see Carol standing right above her with some big, innocent smile. “Carol!”

“What do you think you were trying to do?” She laughed, helping her up.

Schaeffer was still in shock, waiting for the pain to come but she didn’t feel anything. “You shot me- why did you shoot me?” She was breathless. “You didn’t even warn me!”

“Ohh, if I warned you you would’ve moved! It’s unfair to play against you when you’re already so good at it, did I frighten you? Ken, come here!”

“Oh no don’t bring him over here,” she groaned. “You didn’t frighten me, I just thought you had shot me and I was preparing to put pressure on the entry wound!”

“It’s paint, Claire,” Carol reminded her, tapping the side of her gun. “It’s not nice to pretend you’re playing with real bullets.”

“Oh!” Ken though was definitely frightened as he rightfully should be. She did hope everyone feared her in this game, although that was her hope in general. “Claire! I didn’t hear you.”

“It’s just Schaeffer to you,” she remarked only because she was angry. 

Carol cooed, wrapping her arms around Schaeffer’s broad shoulders. “You made it really far though.”

“Don’t touch me,” Schaeffer was going to brush her off when Ken came to pat her on the back too, she probably would’ve tried to punch him if Carol wasn’t effectively holding her arms down. That was probably the point. “Stop it!”

“Aww look, a nice family hug. Isn’t that nice?” Ken wasn’t testing his luck though, leaning in from a few steps away just so he could run if he had to. 

“I will reveal your location to the other players if you keep this up.” She didn’t want to lash out but they obviously weren’t listening.

Carol shook her head. “Oh c’mon, just let me have this for a second,” she said as she squeezed her. 

“Also go away Ted,” Ken took her by surprise by catching the aforementioned man sneaking up on them without so much as a glance, still landing a clean shot. 

She shook the two of them off with a scoff of disgust, scowling at Ted who was standing there now too. 

“Oh, well now it’s just Paul and Charlotte now!!” Mr Davidson announced. “Carol, shall we?”

“What?” Ted shook his head. “Doug and Charlotte, the green team isn’t dead yet. Paul was on the Red team.”

Carol giggled. “Oh, he’s been trying to get all of his employees eliminated,” she elaborated fondly, giving him a quick kiss. 

“Wait, wait, wait,” Schaeffer pushed back past the two who had stepped forward now to talk to Ted. “You planned to get Melissa from the start?”

“Aww!” Carol held a hand to her mouth. “You were out avenging your friend? That’s so sweet of you Claire!”

She gave a warning hiss, she didn’t want everyone learning her first name, and Ted was a likely candidate to spread it. “It’s not sweet, it’s justice Carol,” she waved her off, ripping off her bandada. It was coming and she couldn’t protect her.

“It’s just a game,” Carol reminded her yet again, probably so she didn’t throttle Ken after the game was over for it. 

“I understand that, but I really want to punch something.” She shrugged her safety vest up her shoulders again, swatting Carol’s hand away as she came in for another hug. They all thought it was a game, but for Schaeffer it had all been a little bit traumatising. 

\--------------------------------------------------

“You’ve been following me this whole time!” Paul snapped.

“Shh, I haven’t been,” Amelia rolled her eyes, trailing a few steps behind him silently. 

He shook his head, biting down on his lip. “You’re just waiting for the teams to merge so you can shoot me,” he declared. Oh he knew her plan, her very evil plan. “I wish we were on opposite teams, that I would take you out in a heartbeat.”

“Of course you would,” she agreed. “I wouldn’t put it past you.”

“Uh, not because I’m a bad guy! He defended himself just as quickly. “Because it’s a game!”

Amelia made a so-so gesture with her hand. “If I won I would donate it to charity, sir,” she bragged, she wasn’t evry humble about the good deed. “I…” she went quiet.

“Oh of course you would,” Paul huffed. He hadn’t seen anyone this whole game, and he was getting anxious. The signal was beeping constantly, and the teams were getting close to merging. It was concerning that he hadn’t been able to do the math because he was too busy arguing with her most of the time. Any second now they would merge and-

She grabbed the back of his tactical vest to bring him backwards, pulling him back around the corner. “Shh!” She hushed him. 

“I think the colonel’s out.”

Paul wasn’t familiar with the voice, but he did recognise when Mcnamara responded. 

“Lucky us.”

“Who’s the big competition now?”

“You, when the teams merge,” Mcnamara gave a deep and scratchy chuckle. ‘We should split up soon if you want a chance. Matthews is still out there though.”

“Oooh,” he groaned to himself, starting to play with his hands anxiously. The General was out for him.

The man he was with must’ve been Xander, the soldier they had brought with them. “You like that guy.”

“I believe he’s very capable.” The voices were getting closer now and Amelia was starting to grit her teeth besides him. “I’ll go this way, or are you going to follow me?”

“No, split up. Deal,” Xander agreed, and there was some hesitation and silence as if they were shaking hands or hugging goodbye. Something to make it official. “He won’t be so capable if I get him first.”

He gestured down the path. “We should go,” he whispered, but Amelia stayed to the wall. “They’re coming for me.” He tried to step away from the intersecting pathway but she held a hand to his chest to keep him there. He had to get out of there before it was too late though.

“Ah,” Xander walked right by the intersecting path, and Paul pressed back into the shadows, heart thumping up against his ribs as he remembered how much the shot had hurt last time. 

Amelia was leaning forward, hand on her gun. She was raising it up to aim on the unsuspecting man. 

He squeezed back behind her, stumbling on the gravel. He had to get out of here before that went down. It was his chance to escape from Amelia too. 

“Ah shit!” Amelia snapped as the man turned around at the sound of Paul’s boots slipping on the gravel, firing before he could get his hand on his gun.The paintball was an inch away from missing, just catching the corner of his shoulder. “That’s my rival!” She yelled at him, about to get in something further when the siren went off overhead, a square tone with some sort of synth mixed in. 

Paul’s breath caught in his throat as he turned back around, time already sprinting out and spinning around seemed to take forever. He had never shot his gun so it was still loaded, and he shot Amelia before she even realised it was the merging signal. 

“Oh my god,” Paul didn’t even know which one of them said it, but his paint was on her vest, and she hadn’t even reloaded her gun. He clasped a hand to his throat. “Oh my god!” Had he just won? Not the war of course, but the fight? “Is she out?” He asked the soldier just to clarify when his own thoughts had just exploded inside his head. 

“Uh, yeah man,” Xander rubbed a hand over his head. “John wasn’t kidding about you. That was a bit of a brutal shot.

“Yeah!” Amelia spat, her face painted in disgust. “That wasn’t even fair, I only had one paintball in there! I didn’t want to waste them!”

Paul cracked though, letting out a triumphant laugh. “I did it!” He pumped his fist up into the air, almost crackling with energy.

“Oh because donating to charity was just the worst thing you could do,” Amelia heaved a very heavy sigh. “Thanks, Paul.”

“Huh?” his fist dropped back down, blinking and the colour drained from his skin. “Wait.”

“Whatever, I don’t think I want to hear it. Thanks for the invite,” she shoved Paul as she walked back past him, storming off to the out room. “You’re such a great guy, Paul.”

Xander winced, coming up to put a hand over Paul’s shoulder like they were familiar. “Oh I’m sorry,” he shrugged. “And she was protecting you!” He pointed out, gesturing at the splatter of paint on his vest.

“Don’t rub it in,” he pleaded. 

“I’m sorry, but I think she won, actually.”

\-----------------------------------------

“There’s supposed to be five more of us, aside from you,” Carol had been loyally keeping track of the numbers based off the sirens that were going off overhead with every out. 

“It’s just Paul and Charlotte,” Ken reported. “And they should be around here somewhere.” 

They were heading for the centre courtyard he had spotted on the map in the waiting room. It gave a good point of view down the branching halls and had some platforms for perspective, it was their best chance for spotting competition now that the numbers were sparse.

“I hadn’t expected to make it this far,” Ken told Carol as he watched the field to cover Carol as she climbed up onto the platform, and then she watched him as he joined her. “I just want to find Paul and Charlotte, that’s all! I bet they must be having fun.”

Carol nodded. “Well I hope the finale isn’t violent, wouldn’t that be bad?”  
He scoffed in agreement. “Some of these people take this too seriously, have you seen?”

“And by ‘people’ you’re talking about,” she left the sentence empty for him to fill in.

He nodded. “Yes, I’m talking about Claire,” he confessed, lingering horror still sticking to him as he wondered just how long she had been stalking him for. That was the pro of having someone to trust in this game, Carol had really saved him back there. “But you know Ted probably has a bit too much energy.” He leant over the barricade of the platform, just getting a view over the borders and walls that made up the labyrinth of the maze. 

“And Sam-”

“Sam!” Ken repeated with a growl. “Oh I wish he hadn’t come, but we can’t invite his friends and then…” he trailed off, making a gesture with his hand to lower the volume. “It’s Paul,” he whispered, kneeling down.

Carol crouched down beside him, “I can see the General on this side,” she added.

He rubbed his chin. “Oh I hope he doesn’t take my shot.”

Carol nudged his shoulder to inform him he should have his gun ready then. “I’ll aim for the General if you’d like.”

He bit his lip at that idea. He didn’t really know the General but he hoped he wasn’t anything like his wife’s sister. “I can take it,” he offered.

She shook her head, “it’s okay! He’s a kind man I hear.”

They fell into a mutual silence as they waited for their two targets to meet in the courtyard, Mcnamara was still further away than Paul. 

“Ohh,” Carol whispered, ducking her head. “I think that’s Charlotte, too!” 

“Everyone must be coming this way now,” he supposed. With only seven players left it was the smartest move if you didn’t want to wait. And when he looked around he could identify some more people coming to the scene, too. The Professor was coming from the path behind them and Doug seemed to be at least heading in the right direction. 

“Oh, uh oh. I was hoping it would only be Paul and Charlotte,” she admitted with a laugh. “Should we get down?”

He shook his head. He didn’t think they could see them up here if they stayed low. He just had to remember to spare a glance over his shoulder occasionally. 

Paul had made it to the clearing first, but he didn’t want to shoot just yet. He was wandering aimlessly through to pick a hall to walk down. He didn’t know the others were coming and none of them had arrived yet. If he shot and hit, Ken would have to reveal himself and he might be vulnerable when Mcnamara arrived next.

He would wait for the General to arrive, and perhaps he could strike the both of them with Carol’s help. 

“I’m going to go for Paul,” he twisted around to track him with his eyes across the hallway. 

Carol signed him a yes, gesturing the other way to warn him about Mcnamara before gesturing a little more frantically to Charlotte, who was peering out anxiously from her corner, trying to stay hidden. 

Shoot, she had come a little faster than he would’ve liked. 

“Ah!” Paul gasped when he saw Charlotte and she gasped back, the two of them standing there frozen.

“Um!” Charlotte fiddled for her gun but Ken didn’t think she was going to shoot, Paul seemed to at least be working up the courage despite his shaking hands. 

“Hah!” And from the left the General had arrived. 

He clutched Carol’s shoulder to make sure they were both staying down. It probably could’ve gone down completely independently, but Ken had only come to strike up a fun game with his coworkers and it wasn’t worth it if he only got Ted and Melissa. 

“Oh!” Charlotte shut her eyes tight, clenching her jaw and hunching her shoulders up as if to hide her head to her chest, ducking down and pulling the trigger on her gun, firing a wild shot up into the air. 

Paul rushed out of the way, slamming up against the wall as Mcnamara began to fire too, diving forward to shield himself by the platform pole. 

“Come on!” He whispered, taking Carol’s hand and leading her back down to take Paul while the other two were distracted. 

But then Hidgens arrived in the clearing, stumbling back at the amount of shots being fired and firing one himself in Paul’s direction, leaving a splatter of red on the wall behind Paul. 

Carol’s laughter was shielded under the noise, and while they still had their backs low no one seemed to notice their movement over the chaos right below them. 

Charlotte and Paul were the loudest, both of them frantically reloading as often as they could - Paul almost had to be out of ammo. Mcnamara was a bit wiser out his shots though but he was yet to land one between Charlotte and Paul when he was the one out in the open. 

“Stop it!” Charlotte shouted, it was clearly hard for her to land a shot when she kept closing her eyes like she could hide from the action. That’s why it was so hard to tell what had happened when the firing stopped.

Ken peered out, glancing down to check the people in the court for who had been shot, but there were splashes of blue and green and red all over the walls and the ground and McNamara’s jacket.

“Oh,” he looked to Carol to see if she had seen it too. 

Right across McNamara’s shoulders was a splatter of green. 

Mcnamara was still processing it too, and Paul and Hidgens were were shocked but nowhere near as shocked as Charlotte herself. 

She let out an airy and anxious laugh, making a move to put her gun away now that the firing was over.

“Now!” Carol advised, and Ken hopped down from the platform in the moment everyone had their guards done, raising his gun to fire at Charlotte.

She took in a breath when she saw him, not quite ready yet to fire again but as he shot Charlotte was pushed out of the way by a blur of blue and his paintball shot into someone else’s side - not even hitting the vest but their unprotected side. 

“Officer?” Ken held his breath and he waited for things to stop moving to make sense of it, Carol keeping an eye on his back for him although it seemed everyone was trying to get a glimpse of what was happening.

“Doug?” Charlotte gaped too. “Officer?”

Doug stood there, sort of paralysed aside from the hand that had clutched to their side. They were dumbfounded.

“The teams have split, you know,” Ken tried to explain. “You didn’t-”

“Uh- I- Are you okay?” Charlotte held a hand to her mouth in horror. 

Doug bit down on their tongue, looking at everyone else for an answer. “I think it was an instinct,” they answered just to fill in the silence.

“Oh!” Ken heard a gun go off behind him as Carol fired a shot at Charlotte’s vest, where she had just retrieved her gun from. “Careful, Ken!” 

“Oh, good one,” he held a hand to his heart, he had been to occupied with Doug to be watching. He jogged over to Charlotte’s side to make sure she was okay while Carol kept an eye on the scene. His shot or Carol’s, it still technically counted as a Davidson eliminating the CCRP employees, so Ken didn’t mind who took the shot. Now there was just Paul. 

He didn’t have much time to give Charlotte a pat on the back before Mcnamara escorted Doug and Charlotte out of the field safely so none of them would get caught in the crossfires again. 

Paul was his next and last objective, and then he really didn’t mind what happened. It was near the finale anyways so he supposed whoever won won, but he at least wanted to try for Paul. He took up the lead again to hide from Paul’s shot behind the walls of the platform, semi aware Professor Hidgens was somewhere in the courtyard too. 

He held a finger to his lips, hoping he could lure one of them in if he was quiet enough. 

Carol nodded, suggesting he go one way and she go the other through sign. 

He crept around the corner, keeping his finger ready on the trigger. 

A siren was calling out through the speakers and he assumed it was some sort of countdown or finale warning because it was not the elimination siren. It made it easier for him to pick up his pace through the courtyard too, sticking to the obstructions and walls so no one could take him by surprise.

“There!” He raised his gun as he caught Paul sneaking into his path, the man jumped back just in time as Ken fired, hitting the space he stood moments before and firing a shot back himself. 

Ken slid another paintball into his magazine, firing it at the wall even though he knew Paul wasn’t there, and another shot was fired back, missing him by quite a few metres too. 

He still had about five shots left, but Paul was too liberal with his ammo.

He fired another, trying to duck around the corner to heighten his chances, and this time Paul did not fire back. Just as he thought!

He could barely hear the sound of Paul trying with the trigger of his paintball gun and that was when he jumped out, hitting the man in the back as he attempted to run the other way. 

The siren’s noise fluctuated to make room for the elimination call, and with a proud grin he tucked his gun back into his belt, coming up to pat Paul on the back. “Good job, son!” He cheered for him. “You did much better than last time! Was that fun?”

Paul shook his head. “No, Mr Davidson,” he answered quite truthfully.

He let out a loud laugh, clapping him on the back again. “Oh well you did great! Go on, Emma will be excited to see you.”

“She will not,” he disagreed ominously as he shrugged off his vest and bandana to leave.

Ken didn’t know what to expect now, he was just happy to let things happen as they should and he didn’t even have his guard up as he went to go find Carol. When he was this calm even the countdown siren seemed to have a bit of a funky beat and he was bobbing his head in time and he glanced side to side in search of his wife.

“Carol?” He raised his voice just to call her.

“Here!” She called back, hurrying out from behind a corner to race up to him and give him a quick kiss. “You got him! What a score you have, too!” 

Yes, he had gotten Melissa and Ted and Paul and Doug. That was quite a mightier score than anyone else seemed to have. He wondered why? It wasn’t a particularly difficult game, it was all just a bit of fun! “And you got Charlotte and Schaeffer, I think we’ve done pretty good for ourselves!” he put his hands on his hips, but it accidentally knocked the magazine out of his gun when it bumped up against his hip. “Ah!” He leant down to pick it up but just as he crouched down he felt a paintball fly right over the back of his head, splashing into the front of Carol’s vest.

He glanced up at her in shock, the heat draining in his body until he saw her laugh it off. “Oh!” She chuckled.

And then the heat came right back up, boiling under his skin and he spun around to his feet. His pellets weren’t even in his gun, swinging his arm to just pelt one in the direction the bullet had come from at full speed, cocking his gun again the second it left his hand to fire a proper shot in what must’ve been the span of three seconds, the siren didn’t even have time to change between the countdown to the eliminate to the finale and back again, it just spluttered out one blaring note before letting out a triumphant ring.

There was so much unadulterated and surprised anger in his body that his vision was almost black, especially with how fast he had moved. Only when he came back to his senses did he see it was the elderly professor he had shot at. 

“Oohh!” He held a hand to his mouth, his other hand clutching at Carol. “Oh, I didn't mean to do that,” he apologised. “Are you alright, sir?”

“Oh, congratulations,” Hidgens held his hand out, the other clutched to his head in surprise. He let out an exhausted laugh. “That was quite the shot.”

He could make out that both shots had hit, including the one he hadn’t even fired from his gun. “Congratulations?” He shook his hand, 

“You won, sweetest,” Carol came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

He gave Hidgens an amazed look. “Oh, me?”

“Well you did hit me twice,” Hidgens managed to laugh. “Those were some incredible reflexes.”

“Oh, well you shot my wife,” he pointed out, more bothered about that. “Circle back to the first thing, that’s it?” He glanced around the courtyard. He thought there was one or two more people. 

“I didn’t mean to shoot your wife, you leant down,” Hidgens continued like that made it any better.

“Ohh, me,” Ken nodded, doing the math in his head. “Yes, yes I see that. Oh, because yes- I dropped my gun.” He slipped one hand around Carol’s waist as the three of them headed off the field. “Oh, well that was all fun!” He shrugged. An interesting twist to his weekend. “You make great competition, Professor. It was a pleasure to play with you.”

“Oh no it was an honour to be invited. I’m sure the thrown shot won't bruise as much as the others on the bright side!” He laughed rather loudly. “I’d love for you to show me how to do that sometime.”

When they pushed open the doors the round of applause didn’t quite feel as congratulatory as it did mandatory. 

“Good job, sir,” Bill was the first to smile at him, “that was a great shot!”

“Oh thank you, Bill!” He smiled back, clapping him on the shoulder as they passed over to the hooks to hang up their vests and Bill left to go round up the teens. 

“Oh, Claire!” Carol beckoned her sister over. Ken winced in advance. “Come!”

“You did very well, you would have won if Ken didn’t drop his gun,” she crossed her arms.

“Oh Claire-”

“Schaeffer!” She corrected him yet again. 

Carol gave them both a warning glance not to argue. 

“Well, I did a better job avenging her than you did with Melissa, so-”

Carol stuck out an arm to grab Schaeffer’s shoulder before she could start a fight in the middle of the locker room. “You two! You don’t always have to argue!” She chided.

They both looked away with a huff. “I’m going back to Melissa’s apartment. She’s mad at you too, Ken.”

Ken dipped his head into his hands. There was just no winning in this game apparently. And he didn’t know why! It was a shame competition had to ruin everything. He hadn’t seen it that way. At least Melissa did wave goodbye at him with a smile when he saw them leaving. Schaeffer wasn’t really the best judge of emotions. 

“Oh don’t mind her, she’ll forget about it in an hour,” Carol assured him, but he was fairly sure Schaeffer was keeping a list of his slip ups, and it kept him up at night. “And if not I’ll just tell the General,” she snickered, looking up to summon him over from the bench. “Are you alright, sir?” she asked.

He nodded, fingers intertwined with Xander’s. “We enjoyed ourselves,” he said right off the bat. “It’s more fun to play when the consequence isn’t dying,” he laughed to Xander, like it was a joke Ken didn’t understand. 

“Well it’s lovely to meet you two!” Carol added with a friendly smile. “You looked a little shocked at the end there!”

Xander elbowed him. “He was expecting Paul to catch him. Not the lady,” he teased him by revealing that. “It was clever of you to bullet bait. I don’t know why we didn’t do anything like that,” he turned to Mcnamara.

“Well it seems you two split up when the teams divided,” Ken tried kindly to imply that was the fault there. “You could’ve stayed together.”

Mcnamara’s face hardened. “We could’ve?”

“No, I would’ve shot you,” Xander assured him jeeringly. “If you didn’t get me first.”

Mcnamara burst out into a laugh. “Yes, I would’ve. Not that he made it much further regardless!” 

“Cut it out!” Xander snorted, shoving him before taking his hand up again so he didn’t stumble. “Hope the colonel didn’t cause you any trouble though.”

Carol laughed and Ken didn’t. “Oh it’s alright. We know what to expect from her now. You two have a good evening alright? Maybe we’ll see you again next time!” She waved them off. 

“Why couldn’t one of them be your sister?” Ken huffed, already having decided to sleep with one eye open tonight. 

“Good game, Ken!” He heard Nora call from over at the door, standing with Zoey. 

“Oh, Nora!” He waved to her, glad someone had something nice to say to him now. 

“Congratulations,” Zoey raised a hand too. “Have fun with it!”

“Drive home safely, girls!” Carol called out after them as they pushed open the door to mill out to the lobby, some of the others followed after him like Amelia who seemed to be in a very sour mood. He made a mental note to apologise to her and check in with her next time he was on a coffee run himself or if he ever saw her about town. 

He guessed not everybody could have a good time.

“You know I wish one of the younger kids won. They would’ve been a lot happier,” he managed to mention to Bill as he came up again to say goodbye. “Are they all okay?”

“I think some of them will bruise but they all seem very happy,” he raised his hand as he spoke to turn to the door, waving goodbye to Lex and Ethan who looked to be seeing themselves back home. “I was going to drive the other four home, but I’ll wait to see if anyone else needs a hand.” At that idea, he turned around to glance over at Charlotte who was still sitting on the bench, explaining something to the officers. Sam was rolling his eyes at whatever it was but Doug was nodding, maybe to spite Sam. 

“Charlotte?” Bill asked.

“Oh, yes?” She cut herself short. 

“Do you need a ride home?”  
Ken had figured the fact the officers were in uniform meant they were probably heading right off to the afternoon shift after this, and he was sure Sam had driven Charlotte here. Not much thinking on his half really.

“Oh shoot,” Doug gasped. “Yeah, we have a shift,” they turned around to survey who was left. “I have to run, I think I have to apologise to Melissa if she’s still around. Have a good evening, guys! I’ll meet you in the car!” They clapped Rob on the back as they passed, hurrying out into the parking lot as the other two officers followed after them.

“See you at home, Char,” Sam at least managed to toss over his shoulder.

Ken leant up against the wall, realising there weren’t many people left besides his own employees now and a few of the regulars.

Emma and the professor and the kids Bill was driving home. 

He squeezed Carol’s hand, ready to spend the rest of the afternoon off. “Are we ready to head off?” They couldn’t spend all afternoon in the waiting room, there would be another group to play soon most likely. 

“Oh, I’ve waited too long,” the Professor chuckled. “Come on Emma,” he gave the barista a quick hug. “I’m having Ethan over for dinner if you’d like to join us,” he offered, aware he had to be on his way.

“Mhm!” She agreed, “bye, Hidgens!” 

They all made a move to follow him out the door though, falling into an awkward silence as they shuffled through the lobby in a small group and out into the carpark but no one really seemed to disperse except for the four kids who were trying to race each other to Bill’s car across the lot.

“I would’ve killed you Danny if you hadn’t snuck up on me!” Sof had rammed into Danny when they were racing so he stumbled, and Deb elbowed him on the other side to push him back into his lane/ 

“Imagine getting shot by Danny,” Deb teased.

“Whatever. His shot doesn’t count Danny doesn’t know what colour Burgundy is!” Sof scoffed.

Alice who was lagging behind even gasped. “How do you not know?”

“Because I’m not lame!” He countered, picking up his pace to chase after Sof who had just started to sprint. 

“Uh, Mr Davidson,” Charlotte asked from where she was walking behind him. “What are you going to do?”

Everyone around him seemed to nod, and he didn’t know what for.

“Do about what?” He asked, looking to Carol who usually had the answer.

“With the money? The prize money? The two grande,” Emma answered instead. 

“Oh, well! That’s funny! I hadn’t even considered what I would do with it,” he started to swing Carol’s hand.

“Oh we didn’t need it,” Bill crossed his arms as they walked, not because he was angry, Ken got more of a relaxed attitude from his stance. “What’s important is the kids enjoyed themselves.”

“Why does it have to be about the kids?” Ted asked. “Why couldn’t you guys have let me enjoy myself? And by that I mean let me win?” He asked like it was really, truly outrageous. “I would’ve used the money to treat myself to a vacation because now the company finances are screwed after this whole thing.” 

Charlotte laughed. “It’s such a scary game, Ted. I think I’d rather paid two grand to get out of it!” She added the last part in a whisper, but Ken still heard it. 

Paul mumbled, nudging Emma’s side in comfort. “Well, no one winning the money is better than someone else winning it right?” he tried to suggest and she rolled her eyes.

“We’re eating at Hidgens’ until we save two grand. I was kind of set on it,” Emma joked back, fortunately. 

Paul let out a sigh of relief. He thought she would be a lot angrier than that. “We got in for free though right? So we don’t have to count our losses.”

“I suppose I’ll put it back on the card?” Ken decided, checking if Carol had any better ideas. Of course he could always buy her something but he’d prefer to do that with his own money, not money off the company credit card. 

“Oh thank god,” Ted clapped a hand to his forehead in relief. “I’m gonna spend a week revising the finances,” he put his hands into his pocket. “Good thing that’s going back to the business, right?”

Carol took in a breath, exchanging a mischievous glance with her husband. 

“What’s that look for?” Paul’s jaw dropped. “Why? Why are they doing that?” He pulled at Emma’s arm. 

Emma laughed, bouncing on the tips of her toes and tugging back at his arm as she waited for them to confirm what she had realised.

Bill realised too, letting out a groan that merged with Ted’s laugh and Charlotte’s anxious chuckle. And then he too realised with a growing and chilling dread just where that money would go. 

Ken swung Carol’s hand again, laughing to her since she was the only one who really seemed to enjoy it. “I guess we’ll just save it for the next round!”


End file.
